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

Good afternoon. Do we have any news about what Phoebe is going to do? Is she going to acknowledge everyone who has emailed or selectively contact some people?

@BewilderingBrandy : thanks for the reminder about the rebuttal statement.

IIRC, the statement also explained that "Raynor" and "Moth" were pen names, not an attempt to lay low. And she explained that for official business they never stopped using their real names.

SW called herself "Raynor Winn" in public filings with Companies House.

I think your take on it all would be so interesting. For example -

• had you started a thread before or was this your first?
• what did you expect from this?
• how surprised were you by the result?
• how have you managed to keep your life going? Etc

As I said a while ago, I think the story around the story is fascinating. No need to answer these questions of course - I’m just thinking how the book could start 😂

Aww, Vroomie, I know what you mean and I'm a terror for that. I'm piecemeal relistening because I'm sure I missed a lot so if there is anything that strikes you, say. @AbovetheVaultedSky did an absolutely wonderful recap of that episode.

No 2 tier charabanc here!

ETA canceling Dh's multiple and very expensive subscriptions he can no longer read across every newspaper you can think of was a Challenge. I kept a couple but saved £££.

Your last sentence : This turned out to be useful - for me, not importantly, because I found out exactly where Haye Farm is. For Maxine - extremely importantly for this whole deceit - because she phoned Bill when the Walkers didn't answer.

Musing about what they paid for the Welsh house in (I think?) the early 1990s.....

Without wishing to suggest anything SalRay says is true, the 400+ year old house in SW Wales we bought as a repossession in 2018 was originally part of a large estate (it was the former mill, converted to a cottage in the 1800s) had been sold by the estate in 1999 for £20,000! At that point, from what we could gather from a neighbour who lived there at the time, the property was habitable but dated - so no indoor facilities, for example. It had less land than Pen y Maes (half an acre) but was otherwise fairly similar (stone built, detached, characterful etc). The lady who purchased in 1999 for 20k did a bit of work including adding a bathroom and resold in 2006 for £232,000 to the couple who were subsequently repossessed in 2017 (I believe). I imagine many people would have described it as their dream house - rural, no really close neighbours, a bit of land, period charm.

So being the devil's advocate, it is quite possible the Walkers bought Pen y Maes as a rundown project for not a lot of money perhaps?

Regarding the question of mail redirection, we've done this a few times (moved in 2007, 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2024 - we like renovating houses lol!) and AFAIK the longest you can redirect for in one go is twelve months, so not three years (although this is SalRay's world where everything is different).....

@HatStickBootswas it you who suggested turning all this into a book? I've just read every post from 8am in one go so I may have forgotten. Anyway, the other day I did put all the links into AI to get it to try to put it all together. Unfortunately AI isn't that clever so it didn't work. It wouldn't write me an updated timeline either with inconsistencies. I may have another play with it at some point when I get half a chance. Unfortunately it's not the school holidays so I'm catching up in the evenings whilst entertaining the youngest charabanc member. It would be good if we could have some kind of centralised list of links/ questions/ timeline etc. Anyway, off to take mini me to kick a ball around. I very much enjoyed catching up on all of your comments from today.

The pen name thing is interesting. Many of my friends write under pen names but ONLY because they either write in more than one genre (so one will be written under their own name and others under pen names) or, in a couple of cases, because they are writing in genres that they don't want associated with their professional names (think primary teachers writing erotic fiction type of thing).

There isn't really a good reason for anyone writing a first novel with nothing to hide (such as having already self published a novel, and THAT under a completely different name) to use a pen name. Most people, in fact, WANT everyone to know that this is their book! So, assuming Sal wasn't trying to hide her real identity, I wonder why she would want to use a pen name?

There may be an element of sarcasm in that last sentence.

You too?😆

I’m sure SW would have loved to spin some ‘Death of Chatterton in a Dank Garret ’ type scene in the disused cutting shed, but I suspect Anne, Sue and the rest of the family would have rolled their eyes and suggested it wasn’t the best way of earning and trying to get your life back on track. (I wonder if they knew about the Gangani venture?)

Anyway, even if SW had said that to her relatives, she couldn’t have told the reader of TSP, because that would have ruined the bumbling, self-deprecating, unworldly ‘Little old me? Publish a book? With a penguin on its spine? From my humble little notes to remind Moth of our walk as he breathes his last? Never occurred to me!’ bit in TWS.

That bit where her daughter says she should have it published and SW says, ‘You mean, put it in a ring binder?’ or something always makes me snort.

@AbovetheVaultedSky Sympathies. There is no house quite so clean and tidy as that of a writer on a deadline...

She is writing the piece at the moment ready to go to the editor. She was pleased with the response and thought she had enough to go on with. I think it will be a combination of reading some of our threads and the emails she has received, with some direct contact with anyone if she needs to clarify anything.

Both she and Chloe are aware and understanding of the concerns expressed by some of us and have provided a lot of reassurance. Chloe made it clear she intends the piece to be in praise of all on the charabanc.

We do have to remember that it will have to go through the editors though and is space dependent.

PS I'm not going to be around now until much later this evening.

Interesting point about pen names @Vroomfondleswaistcoat We know there is a clear difference between using one or more (often perfectly open and obvious on the author's own website) and creating a new identity for fraudulent purposes.

That is quite worrying - if she was emailed and just uses names without asking? I would have thought it was courteous to acknowledge everyone and say thank you but no thank you. Or, do we take it that is what has happened - it would be nice to know.

Thank you @DisappointedReader, I haven't emailed, I'm hoping the people who have, will get a good write up for the charabanc :)

I don't remember the price they paid @LibertyLily, I seem to remember that it might have been about £40,000, I'm hoping someone remembers, I don't think it was a total wreck.

Pen y maes particulars when the Walkers bought it in 1992

Yes, the contact Maxine Faramond and Ruth Salperton both had with Bill Cole is really interesting — MF was the one who raised the rumours of a criminal past in Wales with him, plus her certain knowledge of masses of unpaid debts, bailiffs’ letters, unpaid speeding fines and parking tickets, and who was blunt enough to say ‘How much do they owe you?’

RS was another kind-sounding person who travelled a similar journey to BC, from being an awed fan through friendly concern for TW’s health, a neighbourly wish to help, guilt at reading the start of LL and not having realised TW was in such a bad way through to increasing puzzlement and suspicion.

It’s possible BC would have been duped for longer had he not had contact with MF and RS. Just as ‘Anne’ might have had them leech on her for longer had she not had her dad in particular saying they were exploiting her, and urging her to move them on when SW’s mother’s house became free after her death.

It’s like AIBU. Sometimes you need someone else to confirm your creeping suspicions that all is not as it seems.

Thank you @ThompsonTwin, I was a bit out, and I have no idea how much they sold the terrace for.

No, my house is shambolic, but my garden can get a lot of attention.😆

I've passed that straight on.

I’m exactly the same with subscriptions!

I haven’t emailed either and hope the same as you! I will certainly be buying the newspaper.

I'm only guessing based on instinct, knowing the Midlands and buying in the 90s but I really think the Forest Row house would have gone for less (probably not hugely less) than the purchase price of Pen Y Maes in 1992. Like for like financially wouldn't be unbelievable.

This 'losing half our money' is nonsense I think, as is 'all we could afford' and as for the Absconding Child, that was never credible.

Why is nothing ever, ever straightforward with this pair? 😂

I have emailed - and I am so paranoid about anonymity (because of my work) that I made a gmail account for my username! But I haven’t heard anything back,

I have emailed, not claiming to have done any investigation at all but giving thoughts about the whole thing and talking honestly about why I think we came here and why we stayed and why it is important, IMO.

Don't expect it to be used, don't care at all and DH who is already utterly, totally incredulous about the events of the last week or so wouldn't believe me if Chloe appeared with a film crew to ask what it was like being married to Uricon2! It has been quite funny.

@Uricon2 - you have been one of the stars of this thread. Don't hide your light under a bushel!