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

We don't know what Tim is suffering from @Thedownwardspiralpath, but we certainly know that he was not given a terminal diagnosis of CBD and that is what Salray has claimed.

It is a big problem @PinkPanther57, nobody likes to question the medical aspects of this. Did Salray realise this reticence when she first approached the agent, seemingly no one at any point asked for medical proof. I find it sticks in the craw, every time I have had to seek any help for my DD, with education or anything, up to date medical letters confirming diagnosis and medical status are required. You can't just claim to have some condition. I'm also positive that my DD's consultant neurologist, would not allow me to write a book miss representing my DD's condition, their diagnosis of it with a false timeline and then review my book, In fact I don't believe any of her consultants would.

Completely changing the subject, I was thinking about the interview Chloe did with the lady who worked with Salray for MH. She said a call had come from the accountant about an invoice for a van engine, Sally took over the call, the engine was not for MH. We were told that Salray was taking cash and using MH money to make purchases as well as falsifying invoices. Was this van engine for Tim? in the 2015 medical letter, Tim said that he was a landscape gardener and had continued to work until two years before, so 2013.

Did Tim have a van before he got his Defender, mentioned by RH. I'm not good with the timeline around this, but if Tim was self-employed as a landscape gardener, he could have been claiming tax credits and volunteering. Salray could have been laundering embezzled monies as income from Tim's self-employment, I don't know how many hours Sally was engaged to work for, it might not have been enough to claim, I think eligibility was 16+ hours for lone person, 24+ hours if you were a couple unless one was disabled/incapacitated, there were changes to the eligibility especially concerning dependants ages.

Was Tim registered as self-employed but not doing any work, Sally declaring the necessary hours in order to claim the benefit, and actually using the money embezzled from MH to supplement the shortfall that Tim should have been earning? I can't remember what the niece was told when she asked her parents what uncle Tim and auntie Sally did for a living, I don't think she was told that Tim was a plasterer.

By the way @Thedownwardspiralpath, I'm sorry it took so long for you to get a diagnosis, it makes me all the more cross, that these two can lie, when there are people who genuinely suffer and struggle to get the help they need.

It would be difficult to come up with a more cliché-ridden blurb than on the Waterstones' promotion of OWH, as ably commented on above and @Vroomfondleswaistcoat , yesterday. I assume they have got this from Penguin, but they reproduced far more than on the latter's website.

I see that the Waterstones page has also used Angela Harding's illustration, with 3 pictures, to promote the book. Doesn't Penguin feel any responsibility at all towards its commissioned artists? It must be dreadful for her to have this long-term close association with the Raynor Winn Brand.

Infamous now perhaps, rather than famous?
I imagine there will be some still interested but many won’t be.
S&TW elevated themselves into the public spotlight with their many lies and damaging assertions. They are caught in the quicksand of that now. They actually aren’t anything remarkable so people wouldn’t be trying to knock them down for the sake of it. It’s the message SW repeatedly delivered in the books that needed questioning. Examining the credibility of the author and the evidence presented was a necessary part of that and in my opinion was justified.

It would be nice if it were all to stop, for them to take their ill gotten gains and fade away. Best for them too I would have thought.

And to confound matters it makes me wonder how such badly reported media articles end up being valid reference material in wikipedia. I hope someone edits the RW and TSP pages with references to all CH has reported in articles, doc, and podcast.

Thanks ☺️
I realise that Moth lied about a CBD diagnoses but I also understand why the papers are reluctant to pursue this line as they don’t have enough information.
I understand your anger though. My daughter has autism, ADHD and more recently FND. We had to fight for every diagnoses as they wouldn’t listen to me when she was a child. I was also diagnosed with ADHD 2 years ago after fighting for my mental health for near 40 years. We’re now going through the same with grandsons. My sister in in the same boat. It’s exhausting, frustrating and soul destroying.

I can totally understand your situation @Thedownwardspiralpath, I'm sorry that it's been such a long haul for you and your family, I just feel that the letters contain enough information, they just aren't reading them. All of this controversy has not helped people with neurological conditions. Most people don't have very much knowledge about rare conditions, why would they after all. I had never heard of my DD's neurological condition before she was diagnosed, I can't say what it is, it could identify her and myself (she also has autism as well) I know that I would be (and have been) really upset by people not understanding and suggesting inappropriate things, even though they mean well. I can only imagine how much worse it must be when it's based on the lies told by this woman. Fortunately this walking cure doesn't strike people as a solution in my DD's case, I have other things suggested. I have to smile and take them as well intentioned, while inside I scream, don't you think I would have tried that by now, and it makes the fact that there is nothing that can change things, even worse.

I’m confusing myself again re timelines - did SW say somewhere that the holiday lets in their barn conversion counted as employment to qualify them (one or both of them?) for Working Tax Credits? So it was established before they vacated the Welsh house, and if it was paid for the rest of that qualifying year, it should have been reviewed before the next year’s claim was assessed?

I think TW is said to have fallen through the barn roof at some point, do we know roughly when? Is it possible that an ongoing long-term neurological idisorder could result from a fall, a compressed nerve, spinal damage? How badly injured was he? Did he get a bit of a bump, did he have medical attention at the time?

Just listened to OC's latest podcast, The French Quarter.

What I found most shocking amongst all the revelations was that it suggested the possible following chain of events:

• Tim and Sally purchase the French property in Village de Dropt sometime in 2007 for maybe 20,000 euros, which at the time of purchase had a roof and was habitable

• the alleged theft occurred of £25,000 from Tim's parents' building society account in 2007 which then could have been used to fund the purchase of the property in the Village de Dropt

• 2008-2026 No further visits to Village de Dropt by Tim and Sally Walker following the discovery of the theft of £25,000 from Tim's parents in 2007/8. The French property is left to go to rack and ruin. It is unclear if there was any attempt to sell it and repay Tim's parents with the sale proceeds.

• 2008-2025 Tim's parents are forced to live in very basic dark, dingy and cramped accommodation in a rented house in Criccieth and ultimately struggle to pay the rent all of which may have had a materially negative impact on the quality of life they could enjoy during their retirement

• March 2018 TSP is published and immediately achieves significant commercial success for Tim and Sally

• Dec 2018-2023 the Walkers move to live at Haye Farm, paying a peppercorn rent to BC

• Jan 2025 Tim's father dies

• As far as we know, no attempt was made to repay the stolen £25K to Tim's parents before they died

• Based on his IG postings, in March 2025 Sal and Tim's son purchases a 2/3 bedroom house in Newquay (£350K?) with the possibility that either the deposit or the entire purchase price was funded by Tim and Sally from their earnings from TSP,TWS,LL and the film rights to TSP.

If the chain of events described above is accurate, then it really is completely beyond the pale.The pain and anger of Tim and Sally's niece, Cecile, becomes completely understandable.

You can argue that these incidents occurred before and after the events described in TSP and thus aren't relevant. I would profoundly disagree. Imo they completely invalidate the credibility of Sal and any moral authority she may try to wield when pontificating on diverse subjects such as CBD, homelessness and the environment.

Interesting perspective on the TSP saga. The author's overwhelming emotion is sadness for the Walkers!

Sadness for My Salt Path Heroes. Allegations of dishonesty cast shadows… | by Nai Ellen | The Honest Perspective | Medium

@Freshsocks do you think a journo/article for Times etc could counter/flag the date anomalies on scans & say they cast doubt on narrative etc without disputing a neurological condition?

Thank you for posting, lots for us to reflect upon here.

NB: the fact is, as author sees it, factually Moth has CBD. He IS seriously ill. As Times etc have said. Possibly, terminally. All else is noise that can be forgiven because illness & grief make people do desperate things. Those of us with a sick loved one know what this means & hold forgiveness & ‘mile in their shoes’ in our hearts.

I think they could @PinkPanther57, after all the book is supposed to be a true account and the date of the letters alone discredits Salray's account of Tim's illness as described in TSP. I think @ThisQuirkyRaven was correct when they said this could be disputed without further discussion as to if Tim had or has, a neurological condition. I'm surprised that nobody has just concentrated on the letters, Chloe went into a lot of detail, but still said that maybe some other doctor told them something earlier that might have made them think Tim had CBD, I personally don't believe anyone did, and I don't buy this as any kind of possible excuse.

@ThompsonTwin I always remember this, as well:

December 2012
Christmas present to son is holiday in Rome

I think so many do though, even OC unsure, & IMO that’s at the heart of all this.

I think it is also important to stress that there are no neurologists that say that he could have recovered, in the way described by Winn, from this condition. No one has, ever.

The neurologist that the Walkers had a consultation with has said that the description of Moth's recovery is not something that he could endorse. There isn't anything that has even halted the disease's progress. Nothing has ever been published.

Well then, I think what we’re seeing is some PR and spin in the press!
PRH coming out fighting for their goose that laid the golden egg? Or SalRay getting defensive?

I just think its sloppy journalism by pretty inexperienced hacks!

The Winn Walkers didn’t & don’t know this though, they can claim. So a ton of sympathy & blind eyes turned to other petty crimes potentially committed through fear & grief. All understandable…

They don’t have to do anything of the kind, though, just point to CH’s research, her ‘expert witnesses’ who cast doubt on the diagnosis etc. I think she does say somewhere (in the podcast?) that the earliest letter considerably post-dates the date of their house repossession.

I mean, no other paper is doing an investigation on this. They’re just reporting/summarising CH’s as a jumping off point for meditations on memoir, trust in publishing etc. There’s no reason for them not to get it right.

• the alleged theft occurred of £25,000 from Tim's parents' building society account in 2007 which then could have been used to fund the purchase of the property in the Village de Dropt
• 2008-2025 Tim's parents are forced to live in very basic dark, dingy and cramped accommodation in a rented house in Criccieth and ultimately struggle to pay the rent all of which may have had a materially negative impact on the quality of life they could enjoy during their retirement

I think SalRay stole much more than £25,000 from TimMoth's parents. They had sold their house so they could move nearer to the WinnWalkers. The building society account held the proceeds of their house sale. The fact that they could never afford to purchase a house again indicates to me that far more than £25,000 must have gone missing.

I think this is lost & buried though. OC has done an incredible job but hasn’t, to my knowledge, pointed out clear inconsistencies in letter dates & what they imply, in a stand alone article. People miss so much is retrofitted etc.

I think I remember Chloe saying that Sally thought there was more money in the account @PrettyDamnCosmic, that a loan had already been made by the parents to another family member. So Salray didn't realise they didn't have more money in the account.

Surely there cant be sufficient numbers of credulous readers who have believed the 'Moth has CBD/is dying/has recovered because of walking' line to guarantee sales of OWH?

Even IF there still are Twoo Believers who think that he magically managed to walk himself better - which is why he's still around and leaping in front of cameras to promote his wife's film - then how do they explain that he's too ill to accompany her on a walk/she's pondering his demise/suffering thoughts of being alone in OWH?

I know cognitive dissonance is a thing, but this is taking Schrodinger's theory to extremes. EITHER he has CBD and is dying (Sal is telling the truth but walking didn't make him better, negating much of the plot of TSP) or he hasn't got CBD at all (and OWH is a pile of made up shite). One or other of these books is a lie, even by the most dogged reasoning of the dedicated few.

Who is a medical expert though or understands neurological conditions (?) We better understand mental illness these days & it’s possible to be off with depression but spotted mooching about M&S one sunny afternoon.

That he has a condition isn’t disputed & Sal was FORCED to show us the receipts too! Most are still taking this as proof & justifiable excuse for all ‘mistakes’.

Moth pops up on the One Show, a cravated, silver Lazarus…and it’s ‘one of his good days’…