Thread 27 : 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 26 IS FULL

Please see the OP of Thread 25 for all the links to The Observer's reporting and podcast series, our threads one to 24 and so on:
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? | Mumsnet

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are always welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from some of Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou's excellent exposé items before posting. Chloe's podcast series for The Observer 'The Walkers' covers most things:
The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer
Another suggestion:
BBC Sounds - Secrets of the Salt Path - Available Episodes
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, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea: please do not engage with drive-by scolders 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 nearly a year we have done amazingly well together for 26 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.

We are still here after 26,000 posts and fast approaching our one year anniversary together on 6th July 2026, 12 months on from the start of our first thread in response to Our Chloe's somewhat stunning initial exposé. Little did we know what else would come out. Our longevity comes as both a total surprise and a pleasure (mostly!). We've seen charabancers come and go, come back again, delurk and join us for the first time. All are welcome. Threads have both filled up in a day and moved at a more stately pace. Thank you everyone for sharing your time, thoughts, opinions, experience, questions, sleuthing (there's that word!), kindness (there's that other word!) and great humour with me and with each other. As ever, as we embark on our 27th thread riding the community charabanc - this time all holding our brollies and fans aloft for much-needed shade and breeze - keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider, (but not too much in the current heatwave).

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 26 IS FULL:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5506717-thread-26-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?

She is already halfway there, Tim didn't accompany her on the walk :(

And interestingly, her recent pretend-camping Instagram photos don't include Tim at all. I don't mean just no faces shown; all her recent photos are framed only about herself as an individual walker. Photo of one person putting on walking boots. One person's backpack kit. One tiny (one-person?) tent. I think she is in a phase (yet again) of trying to ignore the past. Whenever something goes wrong in her life, she sheds that phase of life or that way of presenting herself, and finds a new frame. She now seems to be trying to move forward into a new fictional identity as 'older woman walker', that doesn't directly involve Tim.

Has anyone tried commenting on her IG photo? I tried (with a perfectly reasonable but challenging question) but the comment isn’t showing - nor one I’d put on the previous photo. This makes me suspect that she (or her acolytes) is now screening and blocking challenging comments (but then I don’t know why the previous negative ones are still there.)

Yes, this is what's happened for me when I've pre ordered a book from Amazon before release date. You do then seem to get them posted out early so they arrive actually on release date, say 1 August, which is also when your account is debited for it. I suppose it works like people buying singles on the first day of release (one for the kids!) and then it goes straight in at no 1.

I haven't tried commenting as I was going to set up a separate account. There probably wouldn't be much point now as she'd block me. I think the reason a few negative comments remain in previous posts is because she needs to manually delete them.

It's interesting that most of the people commenting have their accounts set to private and only have a small number of followers.

New to this thread but have consumed all the podcasts/series about them. I just looked at her Instagram - can’t believe all the positive comments under her posts! She’s a shyster! Are people really that willing to be led?

You’ve made me wonder if she’s started phasing out “Moth” and projecting a journey into widowhood. Tim can go abroad in the meantime.

She has shed a fair few followers in the past year, but yes, some apparently are. There’s definitely a type who appear to want to shoot the ‘messenger’ who shows the idol’s feet of clay, and blame Chloe Hadjimatheou for exposing the thefts, scam etc rather than the Walkers for actually doing it.

Don't know if this interview has been shared on here before.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14k4wxXpUTc/

I think the pictures are setting up for the publicity push for OWH which is, as @Freshsocks says, done sans Tim, so she wouldn't show coupley stuff. It's all going to be solo, and also possibly to avoid people raising the 'Tim' issue. Those who want to can just assume he's too ill to be photographed. The rest of us just think he's the one taking the pictures.

The solo approach will suit 'Main Character Syndrome Sal' down to the ground, I suspect.

Yes, the ‘publicity push’ as you so rightly put it. Are we supposed to think that these were genuinely taken before the coast to coast walk? Did she in fact publish any photographs on IG which led to that solo hike? Presumably they could have included a weary looking Moth, reluctantly saying goodbye. Surely the preparation before that walk would have been incredibly poignant for these two characters. Were there any photos or was it another case of “wait and see what happens in the book!”

I am very untechie but is there a way to tell when a photograph was taken? I suspect that she's going through her photo roll and pulling out old pictures or is 'staging' photos in her garden to try to wind up interest for the new book.

Just seen that someone commented this morning on her latest Instaguff post about not addressing the elephant in the room. At least some are calling her out. Though she could well be deleting any negative comments to maintain the charade and hasn't seen this one yet.

I can’t remember when she started IG, hopefully someone can remind us! I’m suspicious that the walk which took place over the winter of 2024/5 was not preceded by a string of teaser posts and photos on IG because looking at the plot summary of OWH, it seems as though she was keeping the content secret. I certainly didn’t know that she was preparing for a solo walk or that a new book was going to be written until after Chloe’s exposé. This strikes me as odd to therefore be leading up to its future publication date now (walking as a future widow, carrying more baggage than ever) because so much has changed in the interim. It’s like she is trying to squeeze the two timelines together, joining things where she wants to join them in much the same way as TSP itself which was a patchwork of events with Tim’s vague diagnosis from 2015 being brought forward and embellished with diamonds in order to become a focal point of the story. I would really appreciate a proper reason from Penguin as to why the publication date has been pushed so far away. Did the author herself demand this and ask to do a rewrite perhaps? I would have liked to read the original book, just to see how far she was pushing the lies. Referring back to SM/IG, wouldn’t it be rather disrespectful of “Moth” to be teasing out an emotional prelude of curated photos that would lead nicely to the original publishing date of OWH? So why do it now, especially when we can see the photos are just stage props and the bylines have been lifted from commercialised and mass produced wall art. Presumably, the reader is left believing that Moth’s death is imminent by the time they’ve reached the last page. What happened on the red carpet was a blip, an unfortunate one. What happens in the books, stays in the books!

She started IG in Oct 2016, a day after her agency set up theirs. Cooincidence? This is pre-publishing deal or finding an agent according to RWs version of events.

Re: OWH. There were a couple of posts about going on a coast to coast in Jan/Feb 2025 walk but it wasn't clear these were connected to a new book.

Here is what can be gleaned about book no. 4 [5] on IG post captions...interesting no mention of Moth or any kind of life crisis or any connection of the new book to this walk. No doubt all engineered "inspiration" as per...her only crisis was likely what to write her 4th [5th] book about to fullfil her contractual obligations.

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01 Jan 2025

It felt like a privilege to catch the first sunrise of 2025 through a break in the storm. Surprised I saw it at all, if I hadn't looked up from writing for those few brief seconds I would have missed it. I think that's how this year is going to be -so busy that if forget to look up it will pass in a flash.
I'm working on the next book - publishing in September, a summer Saltlines tour. a new collaboration with @peterknightsgigspanner, tutoring weeks, other projects l'll announce in a few weeks - oh, and did I say The Salt Path film is coming in April?
Busy, but I'm going to try to keep my eyes on the skies, who knows what they might hold - not a clue about the new book, honest!

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06 March 2025

Sorry I've been a bit quiet.
I made a journey to the north east in January - thought I'd go for a bit of a walk - alone - if I'd known I'd be there through two named storms, blizzards, freezing -10 temperatures and floods. or that I'd come back with a chest infection that would take weeks to shake off, I might have hesitated.
But that's the richness of life - sometimes we find the best bits in the toughest situations!

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09 March 2025

I seem to have lost the last two months, with walking, coughing and writing. So before spring really takes hold, let's take a quick winter trip along the Coast to Coast
The most unforgettable thing I brought back - bigger than the chest infection/frozen lung! - was the sense of emptiness that came with the vast endless horizons.
If, in years to come, I close my eyes and try to picture this incredible path that stretches 190 miles across the width of northern England, this is what l'II see.

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16 March 2026

A few more days from the wild emptiness of the Coast to Coast Walk
For everyone who asked - no noodles and as you can see I even ate a few bananas - although I'm saying nothing about the chocolate biscuits!! Thanks @kendalmountainfestival for the flask!
Would I recommend this route in mid-January - probably not, but alone in that wide empty space it felt like a sanctuary, like a cathedral - lost, yet held.
Oh - and for anyone who knows - that was as close as I got to Nine Standards Rigg as it was totally bogged out
Then the Lake District....

I noticed that the kit features a sunhat! Unlikely to have been needed on the C2C walk in Jan 2025. Also the tent photo can't relate to her C2C walk - she stayed in BnBs!

@HatStickBoots I suspect that there were frantic talks as to what to do with OWH when all the stories about Sal's true nature started coming out and publication got pushed back so as not to inflame the talk even further. Also because sales would likely have tanked. I also suspect that, if asked, both Sal and the publishers will say that publication date was pushed back 'to protect Sal's mental health'.

There seem to have been various versions of whether OWH was finished and ready to publish (strengthening the likelihood that publication was delayed until all the fuss died down) or whether OWH was not finished and the date had to be pushed back to enable Sal to finish writing it.

Edit: last date should be 2025 not 2026. Mistakes.....

I don’t think SW is walking anywhere except on her own land. Unless she’s significantly changed her appearance she’s not going to risk meeting anyone who might ask questions and I suspect she’d feel too scared to wild camp alone. The kit she’s got isn’t quality and the tent is the kind of pop up you’d take to a festival.

So does that mean that all her recent pictures are being taken now? It wouldn't surprise me to hear that she's staging these 'walky-walky' pictures at the bottom of her garden, but I equally wouldn't be surprised to find that she's combing through her camera reel to post random pictures taken when she could still go out.

I agree with it likely being on her rented land but the tent looks to be decent and possibly this one:

www.fjern.equipment/collections/tents/products/gokotta-1-tent-thyme

It’s still there.

Bear in mind it’s perfectly possible SW is having someone else go out somewhere with an expensive little tent and take photos to give the impression she’s still wandering free as a bird on the SWCP and environs.

Well researched @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree. I agree the tent looks like this one so I need to retract what I said about it looking like a cheap pop up tent.

"06 March 2025
Sorry I've been a bit quiet.
I made a journey to the north east in January - thought I'd go for a bit of a walk - alone - if I'd known I'd be there through two named storms, blizzards, freezing -10 temperatures and floods. or that I'd come back with a chest infection that would take weeks to shake off, I might have hesitated.
But that's the richness of life - sometimes we find the best bits in the toughest situations!"

Yes, who on earth would have thought that the north east in January might be cold with blizzards and wet? I live there. There's a reason that we don't go out much for the first two months of the year...

She's talking as though it is totally out of character for the region to have, well, winter in January. What the hell was she expecting, herds of wildebeest?

Forward planning, Sal. It's kind of a basic requirement for 'long distance walkers'.