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

I have cracked and posted a rider to one question. I know I shouldn't as this is the discussion thread and that is the AMA thread for direct questions to Chloe for Wednesday, but the salt overcame me briefly.

😂😂 yes Wendy!

😂😂 I’m gonna have a google tonight 🙂‍↕️🤭

😂😂😂😂👀👀

count me IN

Have a listen to this:

The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer

I hope that the bucket wasn't previously used by "Moth".

It's fine. I sanitised it with cider before I donned it.

Reading these posts 😲🤩😂🤣 … and back to 🌬️☔️🤧 I deed by rain balaclaber!

Am I allowed to comment back to a poster calling themselves bulbsbulbsbulbs on the Q and A for Chloe? Said person is being ridiculous as based on everything we know about Sally Walker, it’s her victims who have become very ill and suffered terribly. This person is showing a distinct lack of respect.

@DisappointedReader said this is where we should comment. Only qqs. for Chloe on the AMA

I think we have to let Chloe sort this sort of questioner out. Sal's supporters have to be allowed to have a turn too at asking Chloe about stuff. She will, no doubt, put them very firmly in their place.

I saw the comment and my first cynical thought was don’t give SW any ideas. I don’t think she would kill herself but would be more likely to make a cry for help kind of gesture and say this was due to the stress of the Observer investigation.

I am just reposting the above so we can look at the format that it will take on this link above.

I have to say I started mentally listing the vast number of people that could have harmed themselves because of her actions.

If SW claims to have some sort of breakdown as a result of the scrutiny, let's not forget that she has 'previous' viz 'hearing voices' when challenged to explain herself.

Agreed @RockyPath and @AgitatedGoose @BeachcombingBrandy
It’s the first straw she would clutch at and not like she’s never tried to stage anything like that before is it with cars left strategically placed and sudden pretences at severe mental illness. As discussed, she writes Raynor Winn as a character who is unjustly persecuted by other people and has developed a fear of them, avoiding social situations as much as possible because of the traumatic past and so much distrust which goes waaaaaay back to her childhood. Sally Walker, it’s important to remember, is the other side of the coin and the one whose actions have brought about these very things. The act she has relied upon all her life has fallen apart. She is simply biding her time now before her next trick.

Since James, the nephew and marine architect's LI comments back in July that his uncle and aunt were pathological liars who left a trail of destruction in their wake, nothing has subsequently emerged to discredit his observations.

Call me a hardened cynic, but I would be inclined to dismiss any statements by Sal and Tim as more of the same emotional manipulation unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.

Since Chloe's articles first appeared last July, I've seen zero evidence of guilt or remorse on the part of Tim and Sally Walker. At this juncture there is no obvious sign that this is going to change.

When I have reported drive-by scolders, MNHQ deleted their posts for “not being in the spirit of MN” so I’d report any suspcoldious activities and leave the mods to deal with it. It’s Friday night, we’ve got virtual Fudge, cider, and an AMA to see us through until our Observer National Press debut!

So true @ThompsonTwin .. it’s been the exact opposite again. Instead of remorse, there’s blaming and anger and victimhood.

You were more than capable of dealing with them all by yourself @LetsBeSensible ❤ I can't imagine reporting anyone to anybody - it sounds like school!

Re: pps’ early discussion in previous thread about HNTDDD, it would be really good if someone could do an indepth academic-style comparative review of HNTDDD and TSP, it would be great to have this as an extended article in the Observer - and the article author could get external views as to whether the two books are close enough to be considered as the same story / same author.

It would be very interesting to see how they correlate / tally in a very detailed way..

One might imagine that if they are almost identical, then surely either a) SW sticks to her guns that she didn’t write HNTDDD, which essentially means she is indirectly admitting plagiarism of this earlier work (by IWT) or b) SW admits that HNTDDD is her debut novel, which means that she has misrepresented herself in terms of the CB prize, and has won the prize through deception.

Which is it to be, I wonder?

Stepping away from the whole TSP context - if someone tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own, when that previous work is already in the public domain, what are the consequences? I remember there have been very high profile court cases around music - where parts of the song / melody appear to have been lifted from other earlier songs, and I think fines have been in the millions of pounds. If the publisher has published a book that appears to closely plagiarise an earlier book, by a different author, and a different author, what should happen - to the book, the author, and the publisher?

If someone is incorrectly awarded a prize that they should never have been in the running for - through deception - what is the outcome? I can’t think of any appropriate examples in this scenario - is it fraud? Is it just poor judgement- and an apology will set things right?

If the two books really are that similar, it would be good to bottom this out (as they say)..

I’ve got real fudge @LetsBeSensible left over from Christmas! Home made Christmas fair crumbly stuff. Haven’t got any cider, so I’ll be knocking back the virtual stuff and maybe some Cornish moonshine as well.

You can use stylometric analysis to determine the statistical probability of two works being by the same author but it isn't 100% reliable and doesn't account for unquantifiable variables such as the impact of editing.

On the other hand there is the slightly less scientific, common sense approach, which estimates the probability of two random works which share a highly unusual common image ( meeting future husband in canteen and falling deliriously in love when seeing him dipping a Mars bar into a mug of tea) being written by two completely unrelated authors.

…and the even more telling fact that Book A was the only book published by a publishing house set up by the husband of the author of Book B!

...and the ending of both books is that the author comes to terms with losing her home because her only real home is that aforementioned husband.