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

Great, I've done this in Waterstones.

Afternoon all. I hope you are well today. Extra cider and fudge rations today to @ThisQuirkyRaven and @AgitatedGoose

Just adding the link to the page:
BBC Radio Wales - Secrets of the Salt Path

Sal's writings are like getting a pick'n'mix in Woolworths. In The Pavement article of July the weather was terrible:

Further south, as gale force winds drove horizontal rain in from the Channel, we were forced inland away from the exposed cliff tops. Camped in a wood, we quickly found we weren’t alone. A ramshackle collection of tents and tarpaulins spread through the trees, invisible from the road. There we met John.

That would be the Horizontal Rain of Plot Necessity. 😀

Very good observation...for comparison here is the text from TSP...rather different account of how they ended up in a wood and no mention of bad weather (because it never happened):

Two men stood on the sand, loaded down with rucksacks and carrier bags. They were as dirty as us, darkly tanned, hair pushed under hats. Backpackers possibly; homeless maybe. No, not backpackers, looking at the multi-pack boxes of food in the bags. Nor homeless, with that much food.
‘Do you live here then?’
‘No, out of town. Where are you heading?’
‘Not sure.’ Moth was on his feet, but I didn’t have the will to get up. ‘Campsites are all full, Ray’s been ill, food poisoning maybe, so we can’t walk on far today.’
The older of the two looked down at me. His face relaxed a little, easing open the wrinkles to expose the white skin beneath, a face that had spent a long time in the elements, months squinting against the sun and wind. He sat down, but didn’t let go of the bags. There was something in the way his clothes hung loose, something in the tight grip of his hand on the carrier bag.
‘Hi, I’m John. So, what are you, backpackers then?’ Something, too, in the way his grey hair curled from beneath the tattered woollen hat.
‘Well, yes.’
‘That’s a good decision, when you’ve got nowhere to go, to just keep moving. It’s the staying still that drags people down. Yeah, there’s plenty here that stay still for too long – they’ve given in and accepted that the streets are their home.’
‘How did you know? Are you an aid worker or something?’
‘No, you give yourselves away. Lying there, propped on your rucksack with your arms still through the straps. A backpacker would have taken it off, but not you; what’s in that pack’s too important to you to let it go in town.’
‘Really?’
‘Come with us, if you like. We live outside of town; you’ll be able to camp there. Just for tonight though. It’s quite a way, but we’ve got a van.’
Rashly, or instinctively, we trusted them. Moth helped me to my feet, and we followed them to a van parked in the street. We lay on blankets in the back as the van left the street lights and headed away from the sea, into country lanes and darkness. I dozed on and off for half an hour, maybe more, until the van stopped on gravel. Getting out, we found ourselves in a woodland car park, huge pines rattling overhead in a stiff wind.

Yes, thanks @SableGules and @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree everything in these articles seems to be about her in-depth awareness of the homeless. She may have got the correct way to describe people from Julie, like the description of John?

Like many we met, he was educated and non-dependent, the oldest member of a group of homeless people who he said numbered "around 30, give or take"

I find the following quite extraordinary - in view of the previous discussion about the Walkers relationship with the door furniture at Haye Farm.

".. rather than looking to the future with excitement I was developing a really strange relationship with doors." (Raynor Winn)

This piece is put out 3 months after the publication of TWS. Although there is this symbolic theme of doors, there is no talk about glued locks in this article. Here, Raynor is very positive about the door at the cider farm - it represents everything she wants.

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/books/we-took-a-leap-of-faith-towards-the-hope-of-a-greener-wilder-future/

For those of you who are: happy mothering Sunday!

What a spectacularly irritating article. Frankly, even if the Walkers had ever in fact actually been homeless, complaining about the difficulties of having a roof over their heads again in a magazine for homeless people is totally tone deaf.

You can imagine someone sleeping rough reading about the existential difficulties of going back through her door and being able to shut it behind her, and saying 'Cry me a river, lady', rather than the (one assumes entirely fictional) encounters with homeless people who are so inspired by her writing in the Big Issue they start walking themselves or keep a copy of the hallowed article.

Is encouraging homeless people to do long-distance walking even a good idea? They're likely to keep walking out of the reach of various services aimed at helping them, and aren't (unlike the Walkers) likely to have an address via which they can receive benefits etc.

I also notice, with added irritation (!), SW creating a sort of implicit hierarchy of homeless people, like those reactionary stereotypes about the 'deserving' versus the 'feckless' poor.

She prefers the rural homeless to the urban homeless. The rural homeless are the charming lifeguards and seasonal workers living in the sheds and horseboxes, or the quiet, well-behaved, discreet community of priced-out farm workers living in the woodland who insist they 'keep it clean' and won't allow in anyone who uses drugs.

Whereas Dean and Colin who are street homeless in Plymouth, are foul-mouthed, ragged, drunk and use drugs and get into physical fights.

She's actually reinforcing stereotypes here, not exploding them.

Likewise to any other mothers on here! I got coffee in bed, a card with a joke caption about laundry, and a bottle of my favourite bath oil, which is pretty nice, given that he is 13 and currently deeply cantankerous...

Happy mother's day to all those celebrating today 💐
It sounds like your 13 year old got it just right @SableGules, I thought your last comment about Salray reinforcing stereotypes is so true, I have never understood why people thought Salray had real insight into homelessness, I'm always even more surprised that they needed TSP to inform them about it.

In today's "Times" (Sunday 15th) a fascinating article - complete with map and picture (of St. Bees head, Cumbria) - setting out the latest developments re. the English Coastal Path. Apparently this week will see the inauguration of 80% of the 2700 mile route, the remaining 20% will be finished "next Spring". When added to the existing 870 miles of Wales and 3260 around Scotland, all 6830 miles of coastal paths encircling the British mainland will be accessible to the public.
What's encouraging in my view is that the "Times" map shows just 5 examples of "day walks" of between 5 and 10 miles, with either bus or train return!
Think we could just about manage a five mile excursion. For example, the West Somerset Coastal Path - that's in the opposite direction from the Minehead/Lands End route - would be I think largely at sea level most of the way up the Bristol Channel towards Avonmouth.
This massive extension, from 600 miles in the SW, to over 6000 miles of paths around the British Isles, has materialised all too late for SW to exploit, thankfully.

@UpfromSomerset : "Apparently this week will see the inauguration of 80% of the 2700 mile route, the remaining 20% will be finished "next Spring". ... This massive extension, from 600 miles in the SW, to over 6000 miles of paths around the British Isles, has materialised all too late for SW to exploit, thankfully."

t wouldn't be surprised if SW has already walked them all. This weekend.

Happy Mother’s Day! 💐🌞💐

It seems we need an antihistamine of some sort to counteract the “spectacularly irritating” preachings of Salray. Perfect put @SableGules and yes, she’s so ignorant. Thank you for pointing out that she reinforces the very stereotypes that she’s supposed to be against.

The real Salt Path!

I wonder whether it was Julie who suggested Sal focus TSP on homelessness (as well as Moth's terminal CBD diagnosis).

I've always found it strange that the chapter (4. Rogues and vagabonds) is airdropped into TSP as a diatribe against homelessness. It reads almost like a political tract. Interesting also that the Pavement magazine is quoted by Sal referencing an article by a barrister called Alan Murdie about the pernicious effects of the 1824 Vagrancy Act.

Is it a coincidence that after her first article in the Pavement magazine about her own homeless journey, a few months later Sal writes an article highlighting the work of the ACE Project for Caritas Care?

the Pavement magazine - The history of the Vagrancy Act 1824

On to pastures new… we bid farewell to ACE! - Caritas Care Adoption, Fostering and Learning Disability Services North West

A final thought on D&J and their role in this sorry saga.

If (and its a big if) they did indeed first meet D&J on the South Haven Point to West Bay section of the SWCP in July 2014, then this would have occurred before Moth's tentative CBS/CBD diagnosis in June 2015. Reading the account of the walk, might it not have struck D&J as slightly strange that when they first met Sal and Tim, there was no mention of CBD?

If they did indeed first meet at Boulter Gap and then subsequently on three other chance encounters on the walk, would not Sal and Tim have mentioned their experience with the homeless colony near Weymouth? And if there was no mention of this episode (because it simply didn't happen as described in TSP) wouldn't D&J have found this slightly strange?

Were D&J in some senses complicit in the whole saga and thus reticent to talk to the press?

It's interesting that in Sal's IG post of the four of them gathered in the cloisters of New College before their Thames Path walk to raise awareness for PSPA in April 2024, Sal refers to them as "the gang".....

As thick as thieves or innocent bystanders? Take your pick.

Didn't the alleged encounter with the homeless colony not happen after they finally parted ways with D&J?

Based on what we know about how Bill Cole was spun a line about the demands of publishing to create a compelling narrative by embellishment etc, I would lean towards the same thing with D&J and probably just accepted the inconsistencies of TSP having been forewarned by the dastardly duo who were considered trustworthy friends.

Your post also got me thinking and the CBD diagnosis, which, yes would be hard to square if D&J did walk with them in 2014. But what i am thinking is how SalTim never leaned on this when talking to strangers. They learn, allegedly, that telling people they are homeless was met with disdain, abuse, disgust, prejuduce etc. As a result they stop telling people until later on when Moth decides he no longer cares what others think. But why did they not try to garner sympathy by saying Moth was terminally ill? Sally never wrote this in TSP, yet we know in reality they did tell at least one couple - the Parsons, who very much sympathised.

I suppose the answer is because any sympathy or empathy they received would undermine the TSP personas of downtrodden victims.

Moth does tell the other 'cool dude surfers' homeless community in Cornwall that he is dying.

Also, we are not told that Sally tells Bill it is the demands of publishing that make her "lie through her teeth" - I take that as his generosity of spirit to give her an accommodating excuse for her duplicitous behaviour. Which is very upsetting.

No! It took place after they stayed in the same hotel in Weymouth after which D&J went around Portland Bill and Sal and Tim continued westward where they met up again in the loos at Moonfleet Manor.

It's perfectly easy to understand once you realise that the CBD diagnosis was not made until 2015 after the 2014 walk which is why they couldn't have told D&J or garnered sympathy by saying TiMoth was terminally ill. They met the Parsons after the CBD diagnosis.

So D & J did more of that stretch of the SWCP than the Walkers. I did wonder if that was why Sal is quoted as having done 600 miles in The Pavement!

Although the May 2017 The Big Issue email is already claiming the 630 miles which she repeats constantly. She may well have repeated this at the conference where D & J attended and they all met Paddy Dillon?

Always, mix and match, pick'n'mix ....

SW didn’t (as far as we know) say anything about publishers’ demands meaning she needed to rearrange and embellish — as we know, it is all totally true, to best of her recollection. The two places where I remember it coming up as a possible explanation of the untruths of her books were in the CH podcast, where Ruth Saberton asks if BC wasn’t slightly hurt at his depiction as soft-handed, rich City slicker who’s never done a day’s manual work, and he says ‘Oh, publishers make you exaggerate’, and again from BC in his email to SW after he reads LL and realises that the miraculously normal DAT scan supposedly dates from the same time TW told him he’d been told not to make plans for the New Year, when he asks if she’d been compelled to come up with a happy ending by her editor.

It reads to me in both cases like a bewildered, generous individual trying to account for obvious untruth in the writing of someone he admires without blaming her.

I mean, what a dispiriting experience. You come across a memoirist of homelessness and nature you admire and are touched by, give her and her saintly, dying spouse somewhere lovely to live, only to find yourself featuring in her next book as rich and clueless and weeping with gratitude that they have brought your farm back to life, despite them never doing the one thing you stipulated in their tenancy, making cider, and then in the book after that, discover you’ve been comprehensively lied to. And, when you call them on it, they vanish mid-tenancy, leaving you with the bills.

Yes, that is how I saw it - as in my post above.

I am not one to be on the side of the publishers, see vast quantities of posts over the months, but they have actually toned Sal down in this way rather than encouraged her to embellish. We know from Lightly Salted Blackberries that vast quantities of vitriol directed against 'Cooper' were reduced.

More poignantly, and this always affects me, they got her to minimise the full on horror by not including her mother's death. She had included it as a way of maximising the effect of Moth's imminent demise.

Of course, I can't let this go without criticising the publisher also, they didn't edit well enough to completely extract Sal saying that her mother had already died in TSP. All appalling in a memoir where there are other people affected like 'Anne'.