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

That's just made me imagine them competing in a wife carrying competition @DisappointedReader, the winner gets their wives weight in beer :)

How long was he digging for, if the tide was going in and out behind him? I don't think she actually means 'tide' - waves, possibly.

Unless he was there for hours and hours.

Now now, @Vroomfondleswaistcoat -- don't you know that SW is a Salt-Encrusted Sage of the Sea and All Things Marine? if she says poor Monty spent 12 hours digging on the same bit of beach while several tidal came and went, then it must be so.

Maybe he was looking for something very, very deeply buried and probably entirely fictional, like the Kernel of Unflinching Honesty?

I know my dog sometimes gets very absorbed in digging out mice or whatever, but even she, with her total focus, would be hard pressed not to notice the tide coming in behind her. She hates her paws getting wet.

I like the idea of Monty's book being dedicated to the memory of our Wild Pooing Rovering Reporter, with all profits going to The Dogs Trust or local South West/North Wales dog charities.

What the dog saw. How I followed every lead, sniffed out the truth about The Walkers and collared 'em. They didn't even walk me, never mind 630 miles!

Been catching up on the thread further and sending condolences to @TonstantWeader on the loss of the Wild Pooer. May he poo free over the bridge.

Quite. Usually she would be posting pictures of Moth being the very opposite of ill health, but not now!

If Sal and Tim went to Iceland, with Dave and Julie, in 2017 then maybe it was Julie's idea, with her experience, for the email to Big Issue? I have copied some of the old Timeline with the new article and TSP date inserted so people can see how it is ordered more clearly:

February 2017
Walkers travelled to Iceland for walking holiday (Raynor Winn Instagram)
6 May 2017
Sally Walker as Raynor Winn emails the Big Issue regarding a potential article (Big Issue, Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, and The Salt Path author Raynor Winn on homelessness and the human spirit, 30 May 2025)
10 July 2017
Sally Walker’s article published in the Big Issue; at that time she stated she hadn’t yet found a publisher (Big Issue, Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, and The Salt Path author Raynor Winn on homelessness and the human spirit, 30 May 2025)
‘a few weeks’ after 10 July 2017
Sally Walker states she had approached an agent who had responded within a day, and they were currently arranging to contact potential publishers (Big Issue, Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, and The Salt Path author Raynor Winn on homelessness and the human spirit, 30 May 2025)
7 September 2017
Article in The Pavement referencing Caritas Care
22 Mar 2018
publishing date The Salt Path
January 2019
The Walkers move to Bill Cole’s cider farm (The Wild Silence, 2020)
August 2019
Sally Walker states they started a walk in Iceland (The Wild Silence, 2020)

@BrandyAndLovage If Sal and Tim went to Iceland, with Dave and Julie, in 2017 then maybe it was Julie's idea, with her experience, for the email to Big Issue?
Another possibility is that Salray was using 'Julie' for inspiration and milking her for information, in the same way she has done with authors?

It's an interesting theory but I don't think it works because Sal's IG feed shows that when they visited Iceland in Feb 2017 it was deep midwinter and snow was everywhere. There is no way they could have walked the Laugavegar Trail at that time. Instead they went sightseeing including the shark museum.

I suspect the trip formed the basis for their subsequent Iceland trek with D&J that was recounted in TWS.

Like others I made the Julie connection yesterday from the links posted. I wasn’t comfortable enough with the situation to share it. She does sensitive community work and I am still unsure about it being right to pull her in, even though that is exactly what SW did!

It seems to me that Julie thought that SW/TW were genuine, although we know that she ‘asked lots of questions’ according to SW and probably thought that there was a bit more than was being told. I imagine she was very supportive of them building a new life. She is used to working with people who have messed up in some way and actively supports rehabilitation.

It is still very easy, as a sympathetic and empathetic professional, to be manipulated. The huge sympathy card, of TW being terminally ill being played by SW and TW would have ensured that. Hence D&J walking for the PSPA with them. They obviously believed strongly in that. If anything, the doubts being shed on that may be the most disturbing aspect for them.
Like everyone else SW and TW came across they were used. And probably milked for information and contacts. I don’t see that Julie would be able to speak out even if she felt like it. It would be directly contrary to her professional role in working with and supporting ex offenders, without any judgment of what they have previously done.
It feels to me that she is a nice woman who got caught up in the wrong company and just didn’t realise it at the time.

I was typing up my post and just said similar. Interesting that we both came up with the ‘milking’ analogy!

If 'Julie' is brave enough and not at all culpable in Saltims' many dishonesties, then she could use the publicity with Our Chloe and The Observer for good, to highlight important issues like the genuine homeless and disadvantaged.

A major difference between ex-offenders and Saltim is that ex-offenders have faced the justice system and taken their punishment, whereas Saltim have managed to run away, evade and hide from it. Saltim have profited enormously from their deceits and are living in comfort, they aren't having to rely on a charity to help them get a roof over their heads or for a few basics like crockery and a duvet.

Yes, when I said Julie and her job had provided considerable material/inspiration I suppose I was thinking this was just fortuitous for SW. And initially, it was.

But of course, as PPs have pointed out, the relationship has spanned several years and given what we know of SW, it is likely that she maintained it and milked Julie for information, ideas and contacts in the same way she milked other victims' bank accounts for money.

Thanks @DisappointedReader you've done it again. I was just thinking how to say something similar. I don't want to contradict anyone or get in to any sort of distraction away from the culprits here.

My main problem is a few posters have referred to ex offenders - well these two still offend me. I have not heard any true remorse, heard any apology and she is still merrily posting on IG. The PSPA did a fantastic job of dropping them swiftly and the brave few that have spoken out have stopped, what I believe, was going to be an even more damaging scam promoting 'wellness'.

Thanks to everyone for their posts. ❤

Though we don't know D&J went on the 2017 iceland trip, only the 2019 one. The first trip, based on the IG photos, seems not a walking holiday but a roadtrip with a lot of snow. Snow is missing in the photos featuring D&J in 2019.

Thanks @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree and @ThompsonTwin - I am obviously not very good at the actual sleuthing 😉I hope the annotated partial timeline will be helpful to some .... I was getting confused - especially about Iceland, But, again, the Walkers didn't say they went twice ....

This long term user of people does seem to be a feature of her MO. As well as the Hemmings, her mother and her in-laws, she similarly milked Bill Cole's and Polly's generosity and goodwill over years.

You know what strikes me as odd on this list (apart from practically every bloody thing...) The claim that she contacted an agent who got back to her the next day with arrangements to get in touch with publishers. Surely this was a little bit presumptuous of the agent, being as Sal hadn't even signed a contract with them yet and might well have approached several agents simultaneously?

I know my agent didn't make any moves until I'd signed the contract with her - although she had publishers in mind for my books, as far as I know she didn't approach any of them until she knew she had me firmly on board. It would have been horribly awkward for her if I'd decided to go with someone else instead and she'd had to go back to publishers and say 'yeah, about those books I promised you....'

OMG charabancers, chapeau to those sleuths who’ve tracked down Julie! I am v impressed and as has been said up thread, knowing her work does explain the ongoing connection. I would expect that she probably doesn’t want any part of the limelight now that the podcast has exposed the full awful story.

@DisappointedReader I did laugh at the thought of a dedication of Monty’s book to the WPer. He was actually a rescue himself, from the RSPCA at Bryn y Maen, funnily enough, so donations to a rescue centre would be entirely appropriate. Not that the WWs appear to be in the donation business. The milking parlour, definitely 😉

Yeah, that makes no sense. Though I can’t quite decide whether it’s SW just not having a clue about how agencies and publishing works or something else. There’s also that scene in TWS where she describes going with her agent to PRH for the first time and purports to have been wibbling with fright and apprehension, and to not understand that she has all the power here — they are seeing her because they want to publish her book! Does she think editors phone up your agent and get you to trek over to their HQ in person so they can scoff and say ‘No, thanks! Rubbish!’?

Yes, her faux naivety gets right up my nose too.

Yes, very good point and I fully agree with you! They are not ex-offenders and they would still be milking this cash cow for all it’s worth if they could. Julie and Dave are just another couple who fell for the same narrative, probably spoken through gushing tears and gallons of melodrama. Yes, it’s even worse that Julie is expected to support these twonks because of her vocation in life, but they are very undeserving of it. I’ve got a feeling they have cut ties by now.

The first encounter of Sal and Tim with D&J is interesting to put it mildly:

• it supposedly takes place by an ice cream van at Gaulter Gap nr Tyneham Gap

• according to the itinerary described in TSP it occurs on day 3 of the walk from Poole after Tim and Sal had walked the grand total of 20 miles!

• D&J have from Bournemouth ( a strange place to start walking!) and as they seem to walk at a similar pace to Tim and Sal, it's fair to assume that they have also walked for a little over three days on the SWCP

The first exchange between them runs as follows:

A woman lay on the grass with a hat over her face, a huge ruck sack at her feet.

Hello, are you a backpacker? There aren't many of us around.

She sat up and took her sunglasses off: our age and a backpacker, a rare sight.

Bugger me, are you backpackers? Don't see backpackers do we Ju? Well, tell a lie, we saw two near Swanage, going t'other way. Said they'd come from Minehead. Didn't believe em, did we Ju.

Is this conversation likely to have happened? Backpackers are treated as though they are extra terrestrials or some rare exotic species! Come on. This is the UK's most popular long distance footpath. Are you trying to tell me that meeting a couple of other walkers with backpacks would have been greeted with such incredulity, particularly by a couple who'd only been walking the SWCP for a little over a couple of days!

It’s the old humble brag she is so very fond of. It’s not dissimilar to the classic “What, this old thing?!” But so much worse and extremely annoying. I can’t believe Penguin published this crap as a true story. I don’t suppose they saw the photos of a ruddy-cheeked Tim doing the jumping splits or planks and punching the air and they loved the naïve Raynor Winn act.