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?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 23 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?
Thread 23:www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5475246-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?

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 23 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 23,000 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 (and including a shoutout to our threads), 13th January 2026:

The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer

• The Observer, 18th January 2026:

The Salt Path scandal: a hunch, a hint and six months of ... and Publishers agree The Salt Path crossed a line | The Observer

• BBC Podcast, 28th January 2026 (to be confirmed)

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.

After listening to of The Walkers: The real Salt Path podcast episodes from The Observer 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.

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

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 23 IS FULL

How do we join the meeting with Chloe, please? I know I've probably missed something very obvious (hangs head in shame).

It’s just a thread like usual - she will post replies to the answers from the scheduled time :)

I see. For some reason I thought it was going to be a Zoom or similar. Thanks for setting me straight. I can now get back to my wild pooing on the path.

@Peladon This is how it will look.

I'm excited about the AMA. There is part of me that wonders if Our Chloe still has some of the same questions we do, that are not answerable at the moment, but it will be fascinating to get her take on it.

The book was labelled as fiction, but he kept the name Wookey Hole. There were no attempts to plead honesty either, which I thought was interesting. Even though the book was quite clearly fiction, it was enough that he kept place names the same.

Apparently, when the book was reprinted, there was some kind of disclaimer at the front and eight pages had to be edited out.

So in a novel, with the name of the site owner changed, things were still bad enough for the real owner of Wookey to sue. Apparently the cost was so great that Powys had to move from the USA to Wales (which was cheaper). I thought the parallels were interesting.

So am I! It’s not often I get to join in an event.
Are there enough questions? We seem to be at 3 pages and I know we want quality over quantity (but I have a second question I’m holding off asking).

I've asked more than one question, but put that if she's running out of time to ignore the others.

In the words of Mrs Doyle: oh go on, go on, go on!

I don't know what your advice would be on this : I wondered if now the hijacker's posts have been deleted, posters could delete their rebuttals to that person. It still features so much about a very sensitive subject.

Also, @DisappointedReader said that she wouldl be holding back her question to see what was already there. I don't think all the regulars have asked one yet.

Thanks @Vroomfondleswaistcoat . I don't think Salray was at all good in covering her tracks in terms of injured parties, there seems just enough info about them to make plausible deniability not an option. They are cyphers of course, mere adjuncts to the Abelard and Heloise of the path, but still identifiable. Bad move, bad writing.

The ‘Abelard and Heloise of the path’ made me snort.

Perhaps SW will become a nun and TW’s manhood will meet an unfortunate end…

Just catching up with the threads, with my frizzy hair I could be Salray, but I would rather be a wild poo (more personable) but if @Peladon is being a wild poo, can I be the Glastonbury lady, I'll bring the incense, it will mask any unpleasant smells on the charabanc :)

I think Tadge should appear in some form at the charabanc get together!

PS Photo of Tadge attached below!

I'm sure even castration would be healed by a diet of Pot Noodles and a brisk walk. In Salworld, of course.

Surely that has to be @UpfromSomerset?

Well, he doesn't look like a pen pushing box ticker to me. More Khal Drogo (for any Thronies)

Is Tadge the chap at the campsite, who SW suggests is actually a closet bureaucrat despite acting like a hippy and living in a teepee? Because if this is him, he really doesn't look like closet bureaucrat.

I'm laughing my head off here imagining him with a clipboard and pen!

Thanks. A perfect rebuttal to Malice in Wonderland.

Accusing the Walkers of ‘space theft’.😀

If they really had seen Iolanthe at the Minack in 2013 then they would surely have remembered Freddie Tapner and the Nightmare Song!

I wish they'd seen the Mikado.

Because I think the phrase
"Merely giving verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative" would have been a good one for them to hear.

Goodness! That’s the faux hippie who was swathed in layers of faded cotton? Well, that’s gone now 😳

Ooh I will watch that video when I get a moment!
lm loving all the costume ideas and I think Yoko Ono would really be jealous of the panini one @ThisQuirkyRaven ! 👏🏻 ❤️