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]

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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

Late night greetings all. I have just had to get my shepherd's crook out on the new thread.

Not sure if anybody has listened to the latest episode of 'The Rest is Entertainment' with Richard Osman and Miranda Hyde. He talks about the Salt Path Scandal (19.00-24.00) and concludes:

• the scandal has had zero impact on the publishing industry

• the scandal didn't have any positive impact on sales of Raynor Winn's books

• the scandal has had zero impact on how publishers consider the MS submitted to them of real life stories or do due diligence on them

• Raynor Winn's next book (OWH) probably won't appear, but her next next book (when she tells her side of the story of how she has dealt with the Observer scandal) will probably do quite well

The Rest Is Entertainment - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

Good morning, I hope your cold is better now @Freshsocks . I have come down with a cold these last couple of days. We’re due another storm here later tonight, but hopefully not as bad as the last. Better get the charabanc storm-proofed.

Thanks @ThompsonTwin … how depressing! What exactly is ‘due diligence’ anyway? It just sounds made up for the lawyers. Just what the world needs, Raynor Winn telling the world how she ‘dealt with the Observer scandal’. If her legal team or Penguin are hoping to make more money from her, that is shameful.

Yes the podcast is rather depressing. I console myself with the fact that hopefully The Salt Path is a complete outlier and the majority of true life stories submitted to publishers are just that, true life stories.

I also think that Raynor Winn's reputation is in tatters and nothing that she subsequently says or does can help her recover that reputation.

There's also no doubt in my mind that she has lost many fans because of the scandal and whatever she subsequently publishes will not achieve the sort of sales that TSP and its follow ups did.

Just had a look at the 10 most recent review of TSP on Amazon UK.

7 were 1 star (it's a con), 2 were 5 star (great story) and one was 3 star (easy read).

The tide has definitely turned!

Well thank you for sharing the update on this podcast. Throughout this whole reveal I think that Richard Osman was one of the few people who said anything!

I posted last night again about the sales figures (the BBC had said the same as Amelia Fairney) but no one ever gives the stats - except you, thank you. It is interesting that Richard contradicts this, now oft repeated, information. Episode 7 was only released last week - and Chloe says that "it taints Penguin's reputation". This is in the context of Penguin not changing that the story is 'true', As we have often posted on here - as more is exposed they haven't ever changed anything from their 'unflinchingly honest' marketing.

Isn’t RO published by Penguin?

Yes he is. He acknowledged that in the first podcast that mentioned TSP but he has addressed the scandal full on - which is very rare!

It does taint Penguin’s reputation. It makes me think that like many other long standing and trusted brands that had humble beginnings, Penguin has become another one that has turned its back on integrity and is more interested in 🤑 cha ching especially since it has to claw people back to the idea of purchasing a book in the first place. Everything relies on grabbing the wandering attention or fighting with the overwhelm of the customer faced with hundreds of new books and making them part with £10 or £25 which is a small luxury now, sadly. Raynor Winn’s content was like a catchy pop tune but had the seductive advantage of perfect cover art (damn you Penguin).

The CO or whoever stands up and makes statements on behalf of the company needs to absolutely step up now and apologise!!! Remove those targeting strap lines and bloody well take that “unflinchingly honest” tag off.

So he would have more insight than most? Will try to listen to this after work.

As far as I remember (and I'm just an author, so I don't know all the legal ins and outs), you would have to pay to serialise a book and I think it would come down to buying the rights to serialise. You can quote from a book, but only up to the 'fair use' policy (which I think is 10% of content) before you have to pay. I'm not even supposed to quote from my OWN books for more than 10% (which means I can't put up big sections on a website or anything).

So discussions of the book's contents are mostly going to have to be couched in vague terms, alluded to by those who have read it and the rest of us are going in blind, which makes it slightly hard when it comes to HNTDDD.

Towards the end of this BBC 3 interview released 25 June 2023 Raynor is asked "how is Moth?"

To paraphrase: "Really well at the moment actually. He's just done the London Marathon, well walked it. He's in good health at the moment".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n25r

The mind boggles on many levels.

Just adding to page 40. All aboard...but fill the last few posts here first.

@YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree its not the reply that one would expect is it? Every time I see her face, I see all the things that she projected onto others, especially the smug, tight lips.

Sorry you have a cold @HatStickBoots, mine is slowly going, I hope yours departs quickly :)

Thank you @ThompsonTwin, it's interesting that RO doesn't say that the book sales increased either.
Thank you too @Vroomfondleswaistcoat, it sounds like Salray hasn't got to worry too much. If HNTDDD is protected. So interesting that you can't even put more than 10% of your own book.

Re Moth's 2023 London marathon. He walked it in 8hrs 17 mins. That implies an average speed of 3.2mph which I would say was normal walking speed. Can't be too many other people who have allegedly suffered CBD for 18 years who can walk 26.2 miles in a day! Yet no alarm bells rang for PSPA and the wider media world.

Precisely. I am in my sixties, (like Tim), I run every day and do quite a lot of other exercise. But I doubt if I could walk a marathon distance in eight hours. I'm a few years older, admittedly, and I have run half marathons five years ago, but even at normal walking speed I'm not sure I'd attempt the London marathon. Which makes me wonder - what made him think HE could do it? Even with my reasonable fitness levels I wouldn't sign up - yet Tim did and assumed, apparently with a long term health condition, an inability to regularly exercise, a 'dodgy sphincter' and bladder problems, that he would be fine to walk 26 miles?

It seems rather a stretch.

Extraordinary isn't it? Justgiving guidance suggests 8-9 hours for a FIT walker.

He. Does. Not. Have. A. Neurodegenerative. Disease.

You sound really fit @Vroomfondleswaistcoat, so if you know it's not realistic, @ThompsonTwin is right to question why alarm bells weren't ringing.
I suppose putting HNTDDD out 10% at a time, in ten goes would constitute serialisation. I wonder how it would work if ten different people put extracts of 10% of the book, until the whole thing was covered ?

I don't think that putting up a different 10% every time would come under the 'fair use' policy and we'd be likely to find ourselves in trouble. I know I wouldn't be happy if someone took one of my books, photocopied it and put it up for free in 10% chunks - because that would mean that people could read for free. It would be akin to pirating a book.

Much as I loathe everything concerned with the Walkers (including HNTDDD and everything it represents) I would never encourage book piracy.

I agree that it would be wrong @Vroomfondleswaistcoat , Salray is not going to want HNTDDD widely read, I'm assuming. We don't know the exact plot, but from what we heard it is more true than TSP, I have one concern, that if the book portrays this love story that CH speaks of, combined with a fictionalised account of their wrongdoings, all couched as black comedy, people might read it and feel more sympathetic, the reality might become diluted by the fictional account, it's all about their incredible love after all :(

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Thread 24 : To feel disappointed - and now disgusted and vindicated too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet