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

Amen!

Well sort of, except, playing devil's avocado, she and her family are still probably in a better financial position than if she'd led a blameless life and run Pen y maes as an AirBnB with Smotyn a couple of chickens and a couple of cats (btw did we ever discover what happened to the cats?)

I know what you mean @ThompsonTwin, they could have gone through the lot, especially if they are paying a huge rent where they are. If they have bought houses for the children, that could eat up a million pounds easily. Hopefully they have, I agree with your sentiments@Vroomfondleswaistcoat, and @Bummmmblebee :)

Oh they could quite easily have spent the lot (and they appear to still be renting? How long will that last if they're burning through the money). Authors, even best selling, chart topping, film right selling ones don't make as much money as the general public would like to think.

But if Sal has had to spend any of her ill gotten gains in recompensing people for the money she stole or avoided paying, and this has burned a large hole in her bank account - well, I for one am not going to be sobbing into my fudge.

I agree @Vroomfondleswaistcoat, I think they were banking on the wellness business idea, to bring in the cash longer term. I did look at a thing about a wellness retreat, I think it's a franchise, a woman was quoting Raynor Winn, on their Facebook page in December 2025, they are called, The Zest for life yoga and wellness retreats. So whether Raymoth are finished in this market, I don't know?

I suppose it still might be an income stream for them, but only in the same way as if Jenny from down the road set up a Wellness Retreat and recruited yoga tutors and other subcontracted staff. She can't advertise it as Raynor Winn, or Sally Walker because, although she might get a few gawkers and people who want to know someone famous, her reputation precedes her.

And I don't think she's going to get far if she wants to teach writing either. I think their best bet is to slip quietly into obscurity and hope that everyone forgets about it soon.

If they are renting the property I'd be surprised if they can use it for commercial purposes including 'wellness retreats'. After Chloe's articles? Forget it!

I do hope not, it's just a bit concerning that she must still be a believable author with some, within that field. I'm not sure how they're renting it @ThompsonTwin , it leads back to that question that I asked at the end of the last thread. What names did they use to rent from BC, or anyone else that they made a rental agreement with. It's illegal to use a false name, and BC wouldn't have been able to gift them the farm without their real names. They could be renting where they're renting now, through the Four hares company, a company can make the rental agreement. They could have chosen it to be a wellness retreat. I agree it's unlikely to happen now@ThompsonTwin, but it was probably their intention.

A committed agent is interested in developing their client over their whole career, but it’s not clear to me how an agent would re-style a thoroughly discredited memoirist, even one who’d previously made her a lot of money.

Absolutely SW could just stop, assuming she’s not done some of the things @ThompsonTwin lists, or just threw her earnings away on stupid stuff — but when has she ever managed her money well, and when has she ever stopped at a moment when it would have been more intelligent to stop?

A cleverer, less greedy woman would have stepped right back from the CBD diagnosis in TWS and gone with ‘Hurray, they got it wrong!’

Mind you, a cleverer woman would have been more upfront about how their own actions led to their home being repossessed, without necessarily explaining fully. Or cast it as a walk from compulsive stealing and spending towards redemption, or something? And repaid the money stolen from both her mother and the Walker parents to their descendants, or donated to charity in their names, or something, as soon as it was clear TSP was a hit.

But she’s got away with so much by a combination of silence and brazening it out. Who knows what she thinks may still be possible?

That’s why I’m so interested in whether OWH will appear or not.

My understanding is that the original memoir, Lightly Salted Blackberries, did have a considerable amount more about how they lost the house. I think it is interesting that that is the part of the book that Penguin's lawyers came down on and so a large chunk was cut.

Someone has asked Chloe in our Q&A re: the publication of the fifth book. In quite a challenging way?

So true @RueMouffetard, Salray could have done so many things differently. She has made terrible decisions, but I don't know if she is capable of making good ones. We don't know who is advising her if anyone, or if she still wants OWH to be published?
I thought the question was strangely blunt too @BeachcombingBrandy.

Thanks ☺️

Question I'd like to ask Chloe tomorrow (but I've already asked two so can't ask another) is how did she get to see a copy of LSB, what did it contain that wasn't in TSP and what, if anything, does that tell us about the part played by Sal's agent and publisher in the TSP scandal?

Great point. I've been wondering in the interests of accountability (apologies if this has already been discussed in previous threads): given the Walkers' appetite for deceit, the debt letters sent to the Pwllheli address and their assumed aliases: if someone has CCJs, whether expired or still active, but is using a pseudonym, what actually happens once journalism links an alias to a real name?

I read that James/Cooper transferred the loan to a third party who called-in the debt once Raymoths' true identities were unmasked last summer, but there must be numerous other creditors and companies over the years who are unaware of CH's July article. Does that information tend to go any further to the likes of Experian, Equifax or TransUnion or does it remain mostly at a public level of awareness? This is probably one to ask CH, but I think she's got enough questions for tomorrow.

For anyone who isn't up on this, or who wants to see what Chloe has already written, it may be worth having a look at this article:

The Salt Path: what did the publisher actually know?

This has been discussed before on an earlier thread and SW does say in the book that BC paid them a small wage, which (unless it was cash in hand), would have needed National Insurance numbers etc.

He does seem a bit non plussed about it all but I don’t think it’s on most folks radar. We have been scrutinising this story for months now so it seems so big and important to us but it’s a non story to most. It’s certainly possible those who bought the books out of interest canceled out those sales that went down.

The one thing I do agree on though. She’s writing her next book!

They could have told BC that they were self-employed and would declare the money themselves @RainyTuesdaysAndSunnyWednesdays, I don't remember us discussing what names they were using for rental agreements (apart from when I brought it up at the end of the last thread) we have all said how kind of BC to want to give Raymoth the farm, but how could they have taken it from him without BC knowing their real names?

The fact that Tim and Sally were using false names, protected BC from being able to sign over the farm, if he had mentioned wanting to do this to Sally and Tim, it might have really irked them that they couldn't take it. I speculated that it might have contributed to Tim's outburst.

IMO I suspect BC knew their real names from the get go. Otherwise, if he hadn't known, it would likely have been reported in CH's article (the one about him being gaslit) and the podcast how he came to discover their true names after being told their false names. I could be wrong of course, but it seems quite a big deal not to be reported on if he learned their true identities much later because it would add another layer of BC being taken for a fool.

Do you think he knew their real names from the start @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree, why would they have told him, they were not telling anyone else, I thought BC only learned their real names when MF contacted him?

I think that there is a complete lack of information as to when BC found out their real names. If BC and RS had been told that Raynor and Moth were really Sally and Tim they would have taken the pseudonyms at face value and had no reason to think more about it.

Maybe they told him in order to sign a tenancy agreement and receive income. If he only found out later from MF, I am surprised it isn't mentioned in the podcast. Unless it is and i've misremembered.

I think the BBC Podcast is supposed to come out today, January 28. Can anyone provide a link to it, or tell me where I might find it? I might have missed it, but I don’t think the title has even been made known.

@Aussiebornandbred Have you seen that this is where Chloe is joining us for a Q&A. It is not a video - but you can post a question yourself and she will try to answer for us.