The author of the best-selling memoir The Salt Path has been accused of stealing £64,000 before losing her home after she failed to pay off her debts, as well as fabricating or giving misleading information about some elements of her book.
The 2018 book, and recent film adaptation, told the story of a couple who decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path after their home is repossessed.
While the memoir was marketed as a true story, The Observer published the results of an investigation casting this into doubt.
The Salt Path has sold more than two million copies since its publication in March 2018, and a film adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs was released earlier this year.
In the book, Winn said she and her husband Moth lost a substantial sum of money after making a bad investment in a friend’s business, which left them liable for his debts when the company failed. She said it ultimately led to the couple losing their home.
Around the same time, Winn wrote, Moth was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which usually has a life expectancy of around six to eight years.
Winn said after she and Moth became homeless and Moth was diagnosed, the couple decided to set off on the South West Coast Path.
The book documents the pair eventually walking the full 630-mile route, living off a small amount of money in weekly tax credits each week, and wild camping every night.
It describes the physical exhaustion but also rewarding nature of the walk, as well as their interactions with members of the public along the way.
The book ends with the couple getting a fresh start with the offer of new accommodation. As a result of the walk, Winn says her husband’s health improved, and he has now lived for 12 years since the diagnosis.
Winn has written two further books since The Salt Path – both of which also focus on themes of walking, nature, homelessness and wild camping – and has a fourth due to be published later this year.
Over the weekend, a piece was published in The Observer, claiming a variety of details outlined in the book aren’t quite as they appear.
For one thing, Winn’s book claims that she and her husband lost their home after an investment in a friend’s business turned sour, resulting in a costly legal battle.
However, The Observer’s piece alleges that their home was repossessed after Winn reportedly stole tens of thousands of pounds from her employer when she was working as a bookkeeper at an estate agent, resulting in her arrest.
The couple reportedly borrowed £100,000 with 18% interest, secured against their house, from a distant relative, in order to repay the money she had been accused of stealing.
The Observer said the couple also had a £230,000 mortgage on the same property, meaning that their combined debts exceeded the value of the house.
The couple’s home was then reportedly repossessed after the relative sued them to recover the money.
The Observer added the couple owned a house in France that had land on which they had previously stayed. However, it also said the property had been in an uninhabitable state for some time, and that villagers said the couple never stayed in the house but would stay in caravans on the land.
The newspaper also said it had spoken to medical experts who said it was unlikely Moth had CBD, given his long survival after diagnosis.
The Observer found that the Salt Path’s protagonists, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, previously went by their legal names, Sally and Tim Walker. Ros Hemmings, wife of Mrs Walker’s former boss Martin Hemmings, has accused the author of stealing up to £64,000 while working at an estate agent firm.
She said that in 2008, the couple became aware that Mrs Walker had failed to deposit a large sum of cash. Recalling the incident, Mrs Hemmings told the Observer Mrs Walker had pleaded for the chance to repay the funds.
“She was sobbing in the yard and said: ‘I’ve even had to sell my mother’s wedding dress to do this,’” Ms Hemmings claimed, adding that the family had accepted her offer.
After the Observer’s article was published, the charity PSPA, which supports people with CBD and has worked with Raynor and Moth Winn, said it had “made the decision to terminate our relationship with the family”, external.
In a statement released later on Sunday, Winn said: “Today’s Observer article is highly misleading.
“We are taking legal advice and won’t be making any further comment at this time.”
The statement continued: “The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives.
“This is the true story of our journey.”
