Hearts & Minds: Tall tales and true stories. What we can learn from the Salt Path saga

The book, The Salt Path is compelling. Or, as it is now, the tale of The Salt Path. Raynor Winn writes the true story of how she and her husband, Moth, had their home repossessed, he received a terminal diagnosis, and homeless and devastated, they set out to walk around the Cornish coast. It’s raw and uplifting. The account is an international bestseller and duly becomes a major film.

Moth is still in reasonable health and Raynor goes on to write more books, charting further scrapes and his condition. So far, brilliant. Except The Observer says it wasn’t like that. Raynor Winn is not her real name; they only lost the home after she embezzled money; they had a cottage all along, in France; and experts doubt his medical history. 

Her first denial is thin. Eventually, she hits back. It’s not her name; she did defraud and could not pay back the cash, which is why the house went; the French cottage is rundown and uninhabitable; and she releases Moth’s medical records which suggest he received a grim prognosis but he’s still with us, which might make him unique. 

Winn’s response was slow in coming. By the time she did reply, the charity that campaigned for people with Moth’s condition had publicly disassociated itself from the couple. That act alone gave ‘legs’ to the story – at first the media was nervous of following up for fear of a libel action but there was little hint of that and the charity’s dropping only provided validation. 

If Winn was aiming to engender sympathy, arguably she failed. Her long reply was on her website, not through a lawyer, not at a press conference. The Observer was ‘grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and seeks to systematically pick apart my life.’ Yes, but was it right? Actually, much of it was. Crucially, there is little from the publisher. They undertook ‘the necessary pre-publication diligence’ and they add, they have a contract with Winn that contains a warranty on factual accuracy – which is not at all supportive and hints at a possible legal claim against her. Meanwhile, Winn’s tour dates are being cancelled and speculation swirls as to whether they even walked the path at all. 

Winn made her reaction personal and authentic, like the book. She may believe she is fighting fire with fire. But this is different. Her side might not have been fiery enough.  

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard