Thread 25 : To feel disappointed - and disgusted and vindicated now 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 24 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?

After 24,000 posts there are still recent, new and up-and-coming things to look out for on the path.
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:

• 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
• Ask Me Anything thread MNHQ here: AMA with award winning investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, Weds 28th Jan, 7-9pm | Mumsnet

Up-and-coming:

• Our Chloe's short video about Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's first book How not to Dal dy Dir - date to be confirmed.
• BBC Podcast - date to be confirmed

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. The Observer's new podcast series The Walkers (link above) covers most things.
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 7 months we have done amazingly well together for 24 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.

If you are posting about a podcast, please start your post with the episode number you are commenting on, for clarity and to help others avoid spoilers if they wish to do so. Many thanks.

After listening to The Walkers: The real Salt Path podcast episodes from The Observer my thoughts are even more with the Walker/Winns' victims. I also believe that the publishers, agent and prizegivers must now act and be seen to act.

As we enter our quarter century thread riding the community charabanc, as always keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 24 IS FULL 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? | Mumsnet

Or a submarine. Preferably yellow.

OC in Bristol this Sunday discussing The Salt Path and the importance of Truth.

That elements of the book are factually inaccurate is not in doubt. The question that remains is how far can we bend the truth for the sake of storytelling without it breaking? It’s a question that is as important in journalism as it is in autobiography. After all, every narrative is selective and every memory is partial.

Philosophy Salon | St George's Bristol

Well, the bending of truth is an entirely different action to what Sal’s done. Sal has written fiction and has included a few things which have been inspired by the walks they took together. It’s a whopping lie that Tim was diagnosed with a terminal illness called CBD and yet managed to complete all these major walking trails that often narrow down to nothing and scale great heights with sometimes sheer drops to the ocean and a bed of rocks on one side of you. She has completely made up the conversations and appointments with the consultant. That isn’t bending truth. I think it is obvious that this should not be allowed to be called non fiction. The question of “how far can we bend the truth for storytelling” isn’t even relevant to TSP because TSP is a farce! People were coerced into buying it and hanging onto Sally Walker’s every word. Raynor Winn’s word. A fictional account from a fictional couple sold as FACT. Should not be allowed to remain on the shelf under any heading other than FICTION.

Thank you @ThompsonTwin - it is interesting to see that this debate is hosted by the Philosophy Salon and I am pleased they say: sparking a controversy that rumbles on today

Because, as @HatStickBoots has said, it still has not been dealt with effectively by the those who market the Raynor Winn brand. I was interested to look at the gov.uk guidelines which say that in advertising to consumers : The rules on unfair commercial practices in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act mean you cannot mislead or harass consumers by, for example: including false or deceptive messages

I think the slogans and blurb on the books with reference to honesty, truth, and the medical claims, fall short of this. I know that some of the others have gone into this before but surely we should be able to justify a complaint about this to a regulatory body?

Well, the other person speaking is Lily Dunn. a memoirist who wrote a well-reviewed book on her father leaving his family when she was a small child to join a cult on an ashram in India with a woman he met in a strip club, his later alcoholism and death, and how she dealt with the havoc this caused in her own life and that of other family members.

If you cast this into TSP terms, it would be like someone revealing that Lily Dunn’s father had died before she was born, so his activities in her book were pure fiction, or that rather than leaving for a guru in Pune, he’d in fact left for a hairdresser two streets away, or that he’d never left at all, but had been there for her entire childhood.

Can anyone report back from the Observer talk? I was only able to join for a short part of it and I was multi tasking so couldn’t listen very attentively and missed lots of details.
What I did get from it was:

• OC did talk to Moth’s consultant
• OC has not been able to trace Dave and Julie
• OC spoke very positively about our threads and the intricate knowledge of the books that some of us have
• OC doesn’t think they did the whole walk but can’t prove it - but thinks that whatever they did do was small sections at a time

So frustrating to have to leave early…thanks to anyone who can add more details!

So to carry on @Anythingbutheadlands :

OC was asked: What is your primary motivation?
She said that they felt that harm has been done. Basia (OC's colleague) added that there is an insidious message of how you can walk and make yourself better.

Chloe mentioned the Belle Gibson, Penguin Australia, scandal that was featured in Apple, Cider, Vinegar. But, because of what she would have signed it is thought that RW is responsible for the truth in the book. Someone thought that RW should have royalties stopped.

OC thinks it unlikely that Penguin would take legal action. They don't want a story - for any reason. They haven't come out for RW, or against her. They probably hope that another story will blow up that will be the focus. Maybe they will change the publication date of OWH again, when it gets near the time ....

Chloe's next focus will be on Asma al-Assad - the British born and educated, former first lady of Syria. The House of Assad

Thank you so much @BrandyAndLovage, like @Anythingbutheadlands, I heard the first part, but then I could barely hear and it kept glitching. It seems very much like PRH just want it all to quietly fade away.

Yes, thanks @Freshsocks Chloe had offered to go to Penguin, with her findings - but they didn't want to know. I would be interested to know what you think about my post, from this morning, re: including false or deceptive messages in advertising - I think you were amongst those who found out more about this, previously.

I did make a complaint months ago @BrandyAndLovage, I didn't hear anything more about it, I reported PRH to trading standards as well. My feeling is that individually we have very little impact, I think that if we were an organisation or collective it would be harder for them to ignore us. I know that other posters have made complaints as well as me, as far as I know none of us have had a response. We could band together as the MN Charabanc or some such title, something that is harder to be ignored.

Thanks for the report, I will
keep an eye out for the al-Assad stuff. I first heard of OC when she was working on the people-trafficking routes into what was then Daesh territory in Syria. After those poor girls went there from Bethnal Green. She’s very good.

Thank you so much @BrandyAndLovage snd @Anythingbutheadlands
That was a very good point about the royalties being stopped… but I just don’t see how that could legally happen all the time fresh copies are being sold. The thing to do would be to withdraw them from sale or very simply re-market them as fiction. All the time she is determined to call it truth though, they have a problem. I find this sort of thing really gutless. It’s obvious there are false medical claims in these books. The fact that she is a vile person is secondary to those false claims. If that alone was dealt with it would be an achievement. I don’t see why Penguin are not very publicly dropping her. Isn’t she exploiting the terminally ill and homeless? Isn’t that a good enough reason to say goodbye and tear the contract up?

I agree @HatStickBoots and I thought : Well, if Penguin won't stop pushing these books what about our consumer rights? You will see that @Freshsocks contacted trading standards about it. I mean have any of us, that have complained to anyone in authority, heard from anyone? I did Penguin and the Bland prize and didn't even get an acknowledgement.

On the encouraging side, OC pursued this and it was not a foregone conclusion that her initial investigations would lead anywhere. Basia her colleague was agreeing, last night, that it was a struggle for OC to convince others in the newsroom that it was a story worth pursuing. OC then said that, however, The Observer did give her that space. It is so good that we have had this deceit exposed.

I wonder if pressure would need to come from authors, illustrators, films rights people etc to make PRH take action. CH thought they were hoping that interest would die down at some point. She also noted that PRH had sat on the fence a bit. They haven't given SW their full-throated support.

CH also thought various consultants might not have recognised TW as their patient or had not read TSP when asked if doctors had a duty to speak up if medical facts were misrepresented.

I heard the first part quite clearly last night, the question was asked about Tim's consultant, Chloe spoke about him at the end of podcast 4, medical miracle. The consultant is responsible for the three letters, he did not give a clear diagnosis of CBD. We know who this consultant is and that he wrote the review of TSP (now removed) he is not a specialist in CBD, but he is a specialist in dementia, he is also a professor at Liverpool university medical school. We have speculated that he is probably very clever, but naive.

Even if he did not recognise Moth as his patient Tim Walker at the time that he reviewed TSP, he knew in January 2025 when they told him in consultation about the film. They were making claims about Tim's health, diagnosis and symptoms that this consultant knew were not true, or even possible. I don't understand the relationship they had with this neurologist, he is from Pwellheli and as Chloe said in the podcast she doesn't know if or how well they knew each other before Tim and Sally turned up in his clinic.

I feel as a matter of public health it would be good if the Walton unit could make some kind of statement regarding CBD, I also realise that it isn't going to happen, everyone wants this matter forgotten. In the podcast Chloe stated "He told me that he had not read all of Raynor Winn's books, and when I explained the details of Moths recoveries, he said that was something he couldn't endorse." This is Tim's consultant admitting to reading at least one book, we know he wrote the review, so we know he has read TSP and by saying he couldn't endorse Moth's recoveries, he is telling us it's not true from his point of view and he is Tim's consultant the very person who has full access to Tim's medical history and test results.

I’ve not had an acknowledgment for anything I’ve sent regarding this either @Freshsocks @BrandyAndLovage and that’s a very good point @SaltyTea about the professionals who aren’t taking any action towards Penguin or pressuring them. Nobody wants to get their hands dirty! I don’t understand this level of protection. I feel completely naive, as though there’s a whole web of law bumf that has whooshed over my little head, that’s preventing the freedom here. The woman was peddling a health miracle and still would be if that lone voice hadn’t had the guts to speak out in the first place.

I know @HatStickBoots it feels to me that if the publisher refuses to correct this serious misinformation then a regulatory body must have some authority to deal with it. To give a very different example, but because of Chloe:

As my subscription, because of the series The Walkers, was ending I listened to some of the podcasts Lucky Boy, also Tortoise Media. This is a case of historic sexual abuse - a 14 year old boy and a female teacher at his school (who, strangely, is of a similar age and name to Sal). The point about this was that it was taken up by OC and, although it never went to a court case, it did go to a Teacher Regulatory panel and Sally Anne Bowen was struck off:

Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Sally Anne Bowen - GOV.UK

I agree @HatStickBoots, I think the point Chloe was making about the world of neurology was that lots of neurologists haven't heard of TSP book read it, or seen the film, which is a fair point. But Tim's consultant had read TSP, he reviewed it in a journal that would have been read by a number of neurologists, we don't know how many, he reviewed it as a feel good read for clinicians, so I shouldn't think any alarm bells rang.

I contacted the UK neurological organisations last year, informing them of Chloe's investigation, as I suspected that they might not be aware of TSP, those I contacted found it interesting but how seriously they took it, I don't know. If the Walton unit or any other specialist neurological unit or clinician would make a statement about these false health claims, it would give journalists and commentators the facts, it would shut down speculation.

I think criminal charges have been made against Sally Anne Bowen since the hearing @BrandyAndLovage, sometime last year, so maybe a court hearing hasn't happened yet?

I wonder if any of the CBD support groups / charities have made representations to either SW or PRH about addressing the health claims.

OK thanks @Freshsocks The other connection, relevant to these threads, is that the Lucky Boy podcasts are what led to OC being contacted about Sally and Tim Walker.

Regarding the exposé, Chloe was asked: to what degree was the film a catalyst? She said that it wasn't because the person who gave her the initial info, about the Walkers, had wanted to do something for about a year. A friend of OC's contact had heard Lucky Boy and suggested to that person that she was the person to alert.

I listened to the Lucky boy podcasts as well @BrandyAndLovage, the friend of the person who told the informant to contact Chloe was very wise, they probably knew it wouldn't be easy and Chloe certainly showed tenacity in her reporting around Lucky boy.

I think I've discovered where Salray has been hiding out. No sign of Timmoth but she has been misappropriating being an Australian checkout chick and appearing on Traitors Australia - as a Traitor of course! She appears in series one, currently on BBC iPlayer. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Don't ask how I ended up seeing Traitors Australia. It isn't my usual habitat!
Does Claire's story check out? Or is there more to this woman than meets the eye? 👀 #TraitorsAU coming soon to Channel 10 | The Traitors Australia | Facebook

But none of them could do any more than speak generally, like the various CBD specialists CH has spoken to, like the man who was on the documentary. No one can identify TW as their patient, for instance.

PRH aren't acting because they don't have to. No one is bringing a legal action, they presumably haven't had any loss of earnings from TSP and its sequels (rather the opposite), or significant reputational damage. There are no significant stakes.

Decisions will have to be made at some point about whether or not they eventually publish OWH (or some retitled new book from 'Raynor Winn') and whether or not they allow her existing books to go out of print, but that will probably come down to whether they're still selling enough copies to cover the costs of printing, storage, distribution etc and make sufficient profit. Which may in turn be influenced by whether TSP is still selling enough to generate interest in a sequel.

And with ebooks, it's possible to keep something technically 'in print' even once you've stopped printing it.

But unless something changes, I don't think we'll hear anything from PRH until either they announce OWH or say it's not forthcoming.

The consultant Chloe spoke about at the end of podcast 4 The Miracle @SableGules, was identified by Chloe as Tim's consultant, and responsible for all the letters. He said he could only speak in general terms, but he did not deny that he was Tim's consultant.