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

It was the unbelievability which put me off reading in the first place. My friend (an avid, if not very critical reader) was desperate for me to read it, as she'd loved it so much. I just kept thinking 'if he's terminally ill, why would you go on a walk' and then later 'how come, if he was terminally ill THEN, he's still alive and appearing on TV?'

I just couldn't get my rather rule-bound head around the sheer stupidity of their actions and also a lingering feeling that 'terminally ill' can mean anything from a prognosis of mere weeks to 'years, as long as you're careful'. I felt that the whole thing was set up to manipulate emotions.

As such, I've still not read more than a few extracts.

I listened to it too and was left somewhat irritated and bemused.
It didn’t sound to me as though Richard had listened to Chloe’s latest podcasts. Or he was unwilling to make meaningful comment that might reflect badly on the publisher. The answer felt very careful and doesn’t really say anything other than that she will be back and nothing has changed. I thought he didn’t sound pleased about that. Maybe I am reading things that aren’t there. It felt like he was saying that the expose had done nothing other than jeopardise the publishing of OWH.

I was annoyed that he came out with the remark about TW being apparently so nice. It had nothing to do with the question being asked and perpetuates the idea that it is all SW’s doing. I am very clear in my own mind that it is six of one and half a dozen of the other. I am no defender of SW but Richard must have more awareness than his naive friend, regarding charming personalities and fraudulent behaviour.

@Innermagnolia I'm not sure really what Richard Osman can add to the discussion. He's just a published author and he won't have much more in the way of insight to any regular person. I'm a published author (and regular ire-dealer on these threads) but it doesn't give me any kind of specialist knowledge about how this case is likely to pan out - all I can do is give an overview of what might happen.

All this tea and biscuit talk reminds me that biscuits (and tea) feature heavily in the LandLines audiobook bonus material. I think he prefers digestives, and rich tea are seen as a poor relation, but I’ll take one for the team and go and have a listen again.

Are you sure it wasn't jammie dodgers?

They printed that bonus material in the book as well. To save your sanity, I could check? I know what her voice does to me.

Richard Osman is increasingly wokey and underdog-gy, so if the perception is that SW&TW are being persecuted, he’ll tip his scales of justice towards them.

(Also how can he smile benignly in the face of the stupidity of the House of Games contestants? Man - you must be just a tiny bit irritated when some supposedly esteemed journalist/newsreader reveals an IQ of about 30…)

Gosh this site is slow today… it seems to be taking me five minutes just to “react”.
Jammie dodgers, yes.

Thanks Hatstick - good to know that it’s possible to read the drivel about “teas we have enjoyed”. Have to say that hearing it brings a little extra: the clinking of china and Sal’s merry laughter (and breathing). But what really comes across more than anything is how very WELL Tim sounds. His voice is full of animation and good humour - lots of chuckling - you can hear that he would be a good raconteur of stories (whether true or not). When he talks about camping near Lands End, he sounds really genuine and wistful when recalling the boats and the sea.

Anyway, back to biscuits.
For those who don’t have access to this riveting stuff, I can confirm that for Tim, “a biscuit is a biscuit” and although he’d have preferred a digestive, he wouldn’t say no to a Rich Tea. Sal tries to tempt him with a Mars bar, but he says he only really enjoys those in winter when it’s cold and he needs the extra indulgence.

I've just had a look at the questions for Chloe, I have a couple of questions about this process. Is it open for anyone on MN to ask a question, regardless of whether they have been following the threads? Is there a cut off time, or can people post questions right up to the time that Chloe will ask them? Looking at some of the questions, I think we should have put them in a hat on the threads, I suggested this as a way to stop Chloe being asked the same question by multiple people.

At the moment I'm pleased to see that two people have posted questions that I would have asked, so there is no need for me to pose the same questions. I'm all in favour of questioning Chloe about certain aspects of the investigation, facts and information. I'm appreciative that she is giving us this opportunity, I'm just worried that some people will try to use it in a negative way, to attack Chloe.There has been order on the threads, thanks to @DisappointedReader, with the support of others and malicious posters have been discouraged. Is this question thread being overseen by MNHQ?

@Freshsocks Is this question thread being overseen by MNHQ?

It was so straightforward - you ask one question to Chloe. Then it started getting hijacked. Latest I've just seen - posts are being deleted.

Thank you @BeachcombingBrandy, so probably MNHQ are administering, I can see there are lots of good questions from regular posters and I don't think there will be so many as to overwhelm her, I was just concerned about a couple.

I’m moderately pleased he seems to have stopped interrupting Marina Hyde quite so much after listeners kept pointing it out, but I do agree about HoG. I mean, I get that the point is ‘mildly amusing piece of early evening entertainment with joke prizes’, not getting the questions right, but how can that many people think the Thirty Years War was in the 1890s?

Ahhhh… yes you miss all that extra with just the written word.. I agree, it’s riveting stuff. Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones can buy the script and perform it on a dark stage underneath a spotlight.

@Freshsocks This is something else from @DisappointedReader and also did you see I reposted, last night, where you can click on the link from Rhiannon to see the format it will take.

Thank you again @BeachcombingBrandy, I think I just clicked the link and looked at the pages of questions. I'm going to look properly now :)

Thread not being 'overseen' as far as I can see - MNHQ usually post on the thread if they are keeping a eye - only one post deleted so far which was most likely reported for breaking T&C - so usual post-moderation

Tho' is suffering some derailment WRT online bullying/suicide

[lurker and v occasional poster]

Thank you @Efacsen, I can see now that the question has been removed :)
I've read the information about how Chloe will answer the questions @BeachcombingBrandy , thank you both :)

People are rarely all bad, we’re all a mixture of both, it’s just some are more bad than others. I know it will grate on some people here but both Moth and Ray will have some good in them.

Absolutely. And an awful lot of people are on record as saying TW in particular is immediately likeable and charismatic in conversation. I’m sure he is. Which doesn’t translate into saying anything about his overall worth as a human being, obviously. I used to teach literacy in prisons years ago, and some of the nicest inmates to talk to had committed serious crimes.

And to be blunt, we know very little about the Walkers. We know how much of their purported past is a tissue of lies, we know they’ve stolen and lied and scammed and gone to a lot of trouble to create largely fake lives for the purposes of making money, something that has been a huge success for them — but mostly what we know is that the books are substantially fiction, and some details of the real crimes that lay behind the fiction.

That still leaves them rather shadowy figures, TW in particular. SW is the one committing the thefts, writing the confession letters, skipping bail, writing the books, fronting the publicity, doing book events and folk gigs and teaching writing. Whereas we know far less about him, other than that he clearly accepted the money from the thefts, even if he didn’t technically know about them, and that he’s pretended to be dying for years to make money, and he’s apparently very charming and good company.

Yes. But this is where the story starts for me:

'You feel the world is a better place because Raynor and Moth are in it' THE TIMES

Then the well-researched story revealed by Chloe burst the bubble.

I was attracted to this thread because of the title, then: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

For me, this is the background and the most important issue is that none of the victims have ever been acknowledged or compensated.

All good points. I'd like to know more about Tim and Sal's childhood. Did they tell tall stories as children? When did telling tall stories morph into something more sinister? What caused this transition (if it was thus) to occur? I suspect that Tim's siblings would be able cast light on it all.

Time for a musical interlude. These recent posts above have prompted me to recall this - can't think why!

Sorry, don't usually have any problems linking.. Ego - The Saturdays

"I was always there to help you break the fall"

@BeachcombingBrandy Time for a musical interlude. These recent posts above have prompted me to recall this - can't think why!

Here it is.