Thread 23 : To feel disappointed - and now disgusted too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 22 IS FULL

The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

First thread: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Links to threads 2-16, the other 20 Observer articles and videos to date, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement, our timeline and sources can all be accessed in the OP and first few posts of Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5403285-thread-17-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Links to threads 18-20 can be found in the OP of Thread 21: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5460943-thread-21-to-feel-disappointed-and-now-disgusted-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 22:www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5470952-thread-22-to-feel-disappointed-and-now-disgusted-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Most recent:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, available on Sky Documentaries and NOW TV, 15th December 2025
• ‘Don’t look for the money. I’ve taken it all’: Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s ‘confession’ that she stole from her family | The Observer
• Observer Newsroom: The Real Salt Path Story, Thursday 8th January 2026

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the Observer exposé items before posting.
To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea. Please do not engage with drive-by scolders and ploppers who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. For over 6 months we have done amazingly well together for 22 very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

After 22,000 posts there are still new things to look out for on the path:
Podcast series (7 episodes) from The Observer's award-winning Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, 13th January 2026.
The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer

After listening to some of The Walkers: The real Salt Path podcast episodes from The Observer today my thoughts are even more with the victims. I also believe that the publishers, agent and prizegivers must now act and be seen to act.

Please start each post with the podcast episode you are commenting on, for clarity and to help others avoid spoilers if they wish to do so. Many thanks.

As always, keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 22 IS FULL

https://www.hayefarmcider.co.uk/

Shameless link because I think Bill deserves it, as far as I can tell its still up and running. I've put a case of cider in my basket successfully.

Interesting that this 'City slicker' appreciated the history of the place, far more than the hippy dippy children of nature Raymoth.

ETS sorry @BewilderingBrandy , we crossed

All very good points @AbovetheVaultedSky, it was incredible generous of the niece, her husband was recovering from a brain injury and they had three young children. It must have been putting a strain on her marriage having her aunt and uncle there, not pulling there weight, let alone providing extra help.

Could someone put together some kind of collective statement from the charabanc? We need one of our creative correspondents, it could end up reading like the blurb for Gangani publishing. I don't like the term internet sleuths either @DisappointedReader. I'm not sure what this piece is going to be about and how posters will be represented.

I watched the piece with Chloe last night on, We have notes, Chloe acknowledged MN, but did not know the name of the thread, she said "So on Mumsnet somebody posted this thread on there, saying something like, to feel disappointed in Raynor Winn's salt path" Chloe doesn't know what our title is, she obviously hasn't got it that this thread was spawned by her Observer exposé (and @DisappointedReader ) Not because we have necessarily even read TSP books.

We have been backing Chloe all the way, I feel a little disappointed that she doesn't know what this thread is called :) This is probably a very unpopular view, I will gather what fudge I have left, hang my head in shame and wait to see if @DisappointedReader is going to pull the charabanc over and eject me.

Never, @Freshsocks ! Your bum print is firmly established on your charabanc seat and always will be, alongside the rest of us!

Differing views reasonably expressed are always welcome.

Those odds are very generoua.

@Freshsocks We have to go with the flow - she knew there were 22 Threads!

I have to groan and bear it all the time regarding this part of the world. Currently annoying:

Cider at Haye | The Walkers Ep3
When the television cameras come to a heritage cider farm in Devon, Moth and Raynor Winn take centre stage. Within weeks, they vanish.

Spot the mistake!

Thank you @DisappointedReader, because I feel incredibly privileged and proud to have a seat on this charabanc.

I'm from the Midlands- are Devon and Cornwall not the same place? 🤭

Thank you!

So…

1. Winn stuck absolutely & only to ‘the script’! ‘First I must tell you about…to put in context’. Otherwise unforthcoming & reserved.
2. Moth, like Macavity, is never there…This time the interview shifted from home at last minute
3. When later papped in rude health & glowing

Civil wars have been started for less.

I'm going to pass you over to @HatStickBoots to answer this one

I'm a Midlander too. I thought the only difference is the relative positioning of jam and cream on a scone?! (Innocent)

Pronounce Leominster wrong and a different matter, of course.

Do leopards change their spots?

I haven't looked at in detail but opened LL at random just now and noticed something a bit odd.

I think they started the walk in the middle of May and reached Fort William (beginning of WHW) on 20 June 2021 (Sal's IG feed). However, in LL (p146) Sal described being mid way on the WHW near Kinlochleven and hearing the bagpipes some days before the England v Scotland football match in the 2021 Euros. The only problem? It would have taken them a couple of days at least to reach Kinlochleven (22 June?) but the England v Scotland Euros group match took place on 18 June.....

Leopards do not change their spots

This is just a story that runs when there is a shortage of news. Regarding, scones within a cream tea my honest response is "Never heard of them". I think it started when there were more tourists. Neither Devon or Cornwall cream teas had them, historically.

I'm now really interested in the components of SW cuisine! I got married in Cornwall (from Mousehole) the first time and decided the grandspawn would prefer my riff on stargazy pie to the original. OK, it ended up being a bog standard fish pie but I put a few prawns head up in shells which they just about coped with.

The pleasure is all mine. Despite my occasional (Michelle Obama) side-eye whenever another new thread creation is approaching, someone gets a bit carried away or salty and needs a steadying hand, or I have to put a deliberately confusing diversion sign up for any unwanted guests, I'm the one who is incredibly privileged and proud to be hosting everyone here on the charabanc. It's been a rather unexpected 6 months!

Am I looking forward to the time when I don't have to see, think or hear about the dreaded duo?! Yes, of course! I'm sick of the sight and sound of them! But I'll miss you all too.

There was a very audible intake of collective breath and bristling sounds in the little cinema when Gillian Anderson spread her scone with cream first. My son defected to Devon to live with his gf upon her ultimatum and drove away in shame. Everybody became very tight lipped and somber upon hearing this news. It’s a disgrace and I’m ashamed to even admit it on a public forum.

I will email Phoebe but all I’ve contributed to the conversation are my feelings and opinions. I’m in awe of the members here who have done so much work at finding things out and having the patience to put together a timeline.

I agree. I won’t be engaging, as I suspect it will be some kind of mildly demeaning piece about lonely chat forum women enjoying some kind of obsessive witch-hunt as an escape from suburban tedium and thwarted lives. I hope I’m wrong.

Why I’m here is a good question, though. I don’t have the same expectation that the Walkers will be brought to justice as some posters, or the same anger (though I absolutely understand why they feel it).

I suppose as a writer and critic I’m interested in how people select and spin the messy, often grubby materials of life into autobiographical fiction or purported memoir, especially when, as in TSP, it’s almost entirely a self-justifying, self-romanticising fiction of nature-inflected victimhood, purportedly true and hugely appealing to many, but covering up an unpleasant reality of criminality, compulsive theft, faked illness, cynical exploitation and lies. It’s the tenuous relationship between fact and fiction, and between ‘Raynor and Moth’ and the scamster folie à deux that is the Walkers, that fascinates me. I would love to see the MS of Lightly Salted Blackberries and HNTDDD to compare with TSP.

Hoping this takes you to the reel I'm intending https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTe2sENgjv5/?igsh=MXBxNHltb2JuNDBwMg==

I would love to know if Chloe has a copy of HNTDDD.

Very, very much the same here @HatStickBoots , I didn't do any deep dives into anything other than IV antibiotics and oxycodone at the time a lot of the work was being done.

I do think that it is unlikely to be a hatchet piece on the charabancers, though. Our Chloe never needed to acknowledge these threads at all, don't think anyone would have given that a thought, but she has and been positive.

She has. One of the other journalists who worked on the story found a copy for sale on Amazon! Though I think Amazon US, rather than UK.

Yes, please do watch this everyone. It is Our Chloe talking about our threads.

Wow! Can they quote relevant parts?

Are you able to listen to Episode 7 of the podcast @PinkPanther57 ? See my OP for the link.