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?

Re the pointed quotation marks, I've noticed that putting quotation marks around quotations can sound sarcastic when that is not intended.

In this instance, I would also have put quotation marks around the word "invested", not as a way of expressing contempt but simply because it's not vocabulary that I would myself have used in that context (but would want to be clear that I was trying to answer the question asked, which used that word).

Sorry for this probably-over-laboured discussion of punctuation.

ETA: The word "sensible" is also in quotation marks, but I don't think appears in the question, so (on any view?) that instamce of the punctuation isn't rebuking.

It is true that this thread got mentioned by those investigating the scams perpetrated by the Walkers. Everyone is welcome to contribute to this thread - we have always been like that. Unfortunately, as @Oeufs has said, no one is taking the Walkers to court. The whole story is best outlined in this podcast series:

The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer

@Oeufs I'm with you now and the milkman from Croydon analogy was helpful. Perhaps the reason I'm more detached is that I've never read any of the books, and won't now I know it's a grift and they're liars, and not seen the film.

If Raynor Winn/Sally Walker fessed up to her grifting and Penguin withdrew her next book (On Winter Hill - scheduled for publication in late Jan 2028), I suspect this thread would soon disappear.

You may be surprised to know that, as someone who has read all the threads, I have not read any of the Raynor Winn books and obstinately refused to see the film! We are quite a mixed bunch on here 💐

It's more that there would be no particular motive for these threads to be in the media, as the story broke over a year ago and has been thoroughly well documented in newspapers, documentaries and two different podcasts. It's old news now, and I doubt there will be any further media interest until/unless 'Raynor Winn' actually brings out a new book, which isn't scheduled till early 2028.

And yes, I agree @ThompsonTwin -- if SW said 'Whoops, my bad, I accidentally forgot to mention I'm a repeat offender in theft and embezzlement, and we lost our house to get me out of a criminal conviction but were never actually reduced to living in a tent, we always had property in France and relatives to put us up, and Tim is as healthy as a clam, plus we only did a few short sections of the SWCP', these threads would go puff. But SW is still insisting every word is true (or 'emotionally true'), in the teeth of the evidence.

It's the equivalent of David Niven's books being revealed to be, in fact, by the imaginative milkman from Croydon. Once that's established, what does the milkman do next? Does he write another 'memoir' of skinnydipping with Ava Gardner at Bogart and Bacall's house, even though he spends his weekends playing darts at the Queen's Head? Does the general public still want to read a 'memoir' when it's clear none of what is recounted actually happened? Or does he rebrand it as fiction?