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

Shout for MN in the ST article below!

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-man-who-hacked-finlands-trauma-bqzxp0vx3

Can't read behind the paywall.

People were invested in Winn’s original story, but they have also embraced this takedown one. There are reams and reams of Mumsnet threads (my favourite username is AllMothNoFroth), frequently referring to Hadjimatheou as “Dear Chloe”.

Thousands poured out their troubles to psychiatrists — then it went wrong

The first key date marked in my mental calendar is 7th July 2026. The limitation period for issuing libel proceedings is a strict one year from date of publication.

Chloe said no lawyers acting for the Walkers have been in contact. If no-one (including SW herself and her two thirds of a 'law degree') has been up to the High Court with the paperwork by then, that's it.

This is one thing that can't be fudged by SW with cut and paste timelines. Or indeed C&P photocopies.

I don't think Sally could cope with a proper critique@RueMouffetard, as you point out, Salray has been exceptionally lucky, it is only her image as victim, poor woman with the terminally ill husband, that has prevented harsh judgement of her writing. Until Chloe's exposé and the revaluations, even though some people doubted TSP was completely true, Moth's health was the protective factor. She could of course write a misery fest about this whole process of being revealed.

Thanks for finding this. So funny ... and very recent, I think they must have read Thread 22, But get it right - it's Our Chloe! Makes her sound like Hello Kitty's boyfriend - Dear Daniel. I apologise for knowing that ...

I was on some of the earlier threads, when the story broke, but then dropped off. Anyway, I noticed that there was a documentary about the book, so I finally sat down to watch it last night.

You've probably discussed the documentary already, on an earlier thread. But I just thought I'd share my observations with you.

A lot of the revelations were things I already knew, thanks to the Observer articles and to the threads here. But I didn't know about Sally stealing money from her parents and from Tim's parents. That came as a bit of a shock. Iirc, Sally wasn't very complimentary about her parents in the second book, 'The Wild Silence'. The family's hurt was still palpable, even all these years later. And it seems to have caused a rift in the family - one of the nieces was saying that she didn't remember some of the members on the other side, so it must have been a long time since they all met up. None of the family members believed the story about Tim's medical condition. One of them described him as a fantasist.

I feel very sorry for their children. Not only has the scam been revealed to the whole world, but they're estranged from both sides of their family. Or at least, their parents are. And the family are probably personae non gratae in their home town in Wales.

It was interesting to hear the author's account of events - the one who lived beside Sally and Tim when they managed the cider farm in Cornwall. She was very eager to read the second book, because it was set during the time she knew them. But then she experienced cognitive dissonance - the events described in the book (and in particular, Tim's illness) didn't tally with what she had witnessed first hand. I wonder if it was the author who first tipped off Chloe that there was something amiss?

It was also interesting to hear Chloe's account of the story, as she experienced it. At the start of her investigation, she didn't even know if there was a story. And she hadn't read the book. But one revelation led to another and eventually the whole story unravelled. She also explained the difficulty of challenging Tim's condition, when she didn't have access to his medical records.

The most moving part of the documentary was the interview with the man who has CBD. How devastating it must have been for him (and other patients) to be given false hope, only to have that hope snatched away.

Having read more of the article I must just acknowledge the seriousness of the impact on people of some of what is told in these accounts. My last post was just reflecting on the Mumsnet quote above.

I was impressed that The Times had a bit of room for these threads in the article and that this journalist generously acknowledged Chloe. I do hope Our Chloe gets an award for her efforts - to highlight the important aspects of the story for the victims.

Here’s an interesting one.

archive.is/7z9PD

Hwaet!

Just caught up and looked at the AMA, some good comprehensive questions there. I'm pondering but lots of bases covered.

It occurred to me why I found the whole 'pitching a tent indoors' idea to help her sleep so irritating. Over the years, I've known a number of people who were in WW2 Stalags and FE POW camps. Some (not all) had longstanding behaviour patterns that were related to those experiences, the inability to tolerate being 'locked in' anywhere (eg an ordinary hospital ward while having medical treatment) and hiding/hoarding food being examples. I don't think it takes much imagination to understand why these things would have been entrenched sometimes for life, the amazing thing being how well many functioned after such traumas, even if there were ongoing things they struggled with.

I think Salray is 'emulating' for sympathy what is an entrenched survivor behaviour of people who have been through appalling situations. Sorry Salray but what we've increasingly come to know were a couple of longish walking holidays in Cornwall is NOT the same as living with starvation, the constant fear of death and the psychological harm that can result. IMO it was self indulgent nonsense yet again designed to manipulate.

Quoting from the article I posted a link to:

Her publishers called Walker “a powerhouse brand” and were due to publish a fourth book, On Winter Hill, this October. Many a memoirist smears Vaseline on the lens but too much of The Salt Path — built on Walker’s apparent sincerity and integrity — now feels corrupted or conveniently erased, casting doubt on this publishing phenomenon. Still, as tempting as it is to turn this into a tale of a scheming villain, there are broader questions with repercussions across publishing. Namely, how on earth did this happen? Did no one at PRH check out Walker’s story? How did she explain her husband’s miraculous good health to commissioning editors and fact-checkers after his <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/7z9PD/www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/salt-path-author-raynor-winn-husband-illness-br623bpcg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD), an irreversible condition that leaves sufferers with severe mental and physical disabilities? Were there fact-checkers? And what I’d really like to know is: what alterations were made to the book between submission and publication to give the messy lives of the Walkers the heartwarming contours of the Winns?

So far PRH has only released a flimsy and inadequate statement stating that it “undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence” and that “prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content”. Meanwhile, Walker has fought back in a statement on her website, insisting that the Observer article was “grotesquely unfair” and “highly misleading” in its suggestion that the pair have not been honest about Moth’s CBD diagnosis. But she does admit to “mistakes” made while she was working for her former employer, which led to allegations of theft.
There are certainly issues of process to be taken into account. “It’s a bit weak not to have fact-checked this more thoroughly,” says one editor who used to work at PRH. But publishers are not trained investigative journalists and will tell you they simply don’t have the resources to check every single nonfiction title they publish. This is why book contracts have indemnity clauses, putting the onus on the author to confirm that events took place. With some memoirs, especially ones about troubled families, the publishers will track down extra corroboration for claims that could open them up to libel suits.
If the allegations are true, Walker is likely to be in breach of her contractual warranties and PRH will be entitled to cancel her contract. But as one agent points out: “It remains a bestseller so I wonder whether they’ll want to.”

So happy to see you @Uricon2 i was starting to worry yesterday. I agree with everything you say in your post above, especially the irritation at how contrived it is. In her case (well, in her book at least) she’s trying to convey that being indoors is causing the trauma because she’s discovered that she belongs to the land, the path specifically and also the sea. She has found her truest self and discovered that “home” is not within walls and a roof over their head. Her supposed trauma* makes a mockery of the true meaning of the word because as we know, she is unrepentant, unapologetic, arrogant as hell and completely smug and deluded. Add your own adjectives and verbs to that list.

*Of what exactly? Moth hasn’t been diagnosed with a deadly, life threatening disease and they hadn’t just lost their house due to a naive business deal gone wrong.

@Uricon2 I was like @HatStickBoots , a little concerned at the lack of your presence. You have registered that presence with a powerful post, thank you. 💥

Thanks @HatStickBoots , I had a difficult couple of days as meds having side effects while not working well on the arrythmia etc. Awaiting further instructions from cardiology (or perhaps I should just go for a nice long walk?)

Was going to pretend that I'd been engrossed in TSP, TWS and LL but know noone would believe me 😂

Agreed, even if the walk, Moth's health and the reasons for their situation had been exactly as described by Salray the indoor tent pitching would have been strange, but as untruth vastly outweighs fact it is just heart string tugging glumwash drivel.

Great post @Uricon2, good to see you back on form :)

From @HatStickBoots article above: If the allegations are true, Walker is likely to be in breach of her contractual warranties and PRH will be entitled to cancel her contract. But as one agent points out: “It remains a bestseller so I wonder whether they’ll want to.”

Here we go again. This ties in with the question I have posted for Chloe. We do get a lot of unsubstantiated quotes like this - that are then repeated. I am not sure what constitutes a 'bestseller' but it doesn't feature in the top lists anymore. So surely it doesn't 'remain' one?

I was pleased to see that you have asked this question of Chloe @BeachcombingBrandy, we might get some clarity.

Reflecting on your earlier post @Uricon2, I spent some months in a tent, a very long time ago and I was very young, late teens and it was spring and summer (we just called it camping, not wild camping in those days) I didn't have a problem adapting to sleeping in a room, as opposed to the tent, when I returned to a house. It was the accessibility of water that gave me a thrill, being able to just turn on a tap. In the tent I had a plastic folding water container, I had to go to people's houses and ask for water, people were very kind. Also the toilet, after months of hole digging, the luxury of a toilet. I haven't heard Salray repeated relaying delight at having these things to hand, it's always the negative tent story.

And they got my former username mixed up. More due diligence required!

I love your new username @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree, I get a delightful musical earworm and a desire to eat chips :)

That's hilarious - I didn't un-transpose it either. I just knew it came from a particular thread only.

@Freshsocks thanks re the question. To clarify my last post above - this article was only put out a few days after Chloe's expose so there would be no stats on it remaining a 'bestseller' it just still was at that point.

So sorry about your health @Uricon2 😞 ❤️

@BeachcombingBrandy yes indeed.. here we go again. It’s that lack of integrity from a big publishing house which is rankling me. They’ll continue to serve up this drivel as long as there are people willing to buy it. They’ve put the onus onto the author and claim they’re far too busy to do anything as dull as fact checking even the most obvious points. Maybe it seemed a bit odd or contrary to them and they just shrugged and hid behind their legal terms. But it really makes it worse when not only that but they plastered the covers with accolades and loving quotes. God help us. The public loved this story because it is a fairy tale. There are still people who love it and have never heard of any controversy because they don’t watch or read news. There must be a fair sized proportion of people to whom this has not affected. The books are still on display in my local bookshop and museum just not in one of the garden shops any more. The film is still being proudly showcased on the SWCP website. I’m saddened by the thought of Salray rising phoenix-like and continuing this journey stronger than ever because of people’s ignorance.

There’s never a time when I don’t want to eat chips unfortunately!
May I ask what happened to @SimonArmpit and @SimoArmo ?

Incredible isn’t it?! It’s odd that neither has relinquished all their worldly goods and just gone off with their packs on their backs into the sunset by now.

Ah but they were never the same person ... SimonArmwrestler even made a brief appearance at the beginning of probably Thread 21 - apologies, again, I am not a sleuth in any way ... I have this sort of memory

The thing with being a 'bestseller' is that Amazon has so many categories and subcategories and if you game the system and pick your categories carefully, you can be a 'bestseller'. You only have to outsell the other books in your category, So TSP et al could well still be 'bestsellers', if the category is 'Stories about Long Distance Walking in the UK' or even 'Books about walking written by women with size five feet'.

I had a book that got to number one in 'Horse Care'. I was, therefore, a best seller, even though the book was fiction, it had a horse in it but nobody did anything more than brush it once in a while. Publishers will game the system with tags, just to get that bestseller tag. And it does mean that Sal's books could very well still be bestsellers, it just depends on the category, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's topped the literary charts.