In 2018, a lady called Raynor Winn published The Salt Path, an account of her 630-mile walk with her husband Moth around part of the UK Coastal Path from Weston-super-Mare to Cornwall.
The couple lived in Wales and she described how they lost their house after a long legal battle when an investment Moth had made in a relative’s company failed. She said that they had produced a document proving they did not owe the money, but the judge ruled it inadmissible. At the same time, Moth had been diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration, CBD, where proteins attack and destroy brain cells. The disease is fatal.
Now desperate and destitute, they decided to make the walk, their only income a small social security payment each week. They live in a tent, exist on meagre rations, and endure all sorts of weather, but are heartened by those who take pity on their plight and look after them. The exercise, although very tough at times, improves Moth’s condition and slows degeneration.
Raynor has since written two sequels – The Wild Silence and Landlines and her bestsellers have sold over two million copies. Just over a month ago, Netflix released a film of The Salt Path.
The Salt Path was a member’s choice for our book club. Most thought it well-written and enjoyable, but I and some others felt that the book did not ring true.
Those misgivings resurfaced when a recent article in The Observer newspaper revealed a very different story. Their real names are Sally and Tim Walker. For some years, Sally was the bookkeeper for an estate agent, who discovered £9,000 had not been banked. He and his wife audited the accounts to find £64,000 had been embezzled. Sally was arrested, released on bail, then vanished. Eventually, the estate agent agreed not to prosecute provided all the monies were repaid. James Cooper (not his real name), a relative of Tim’s, lent them £100,000 from his personal account to clear the debt, repayable on demand. Then his company failed and he owed money. He told two creditors to approach the Walkers, who refused to pay, so they took them to court and won.
The paper’s reporter discovered that Sally and Tim have owned a house near Bordeaux since 2007.
The paper spoke to a number of neurology specialists, who expressed doubt that Tim has CBD. The normal lifespan after diagnosis is 6-8 years. Some few live to 12 years, but are totally disabled and need 24/7 care. Tim is now at 18 years post-diagnosis with no acute symptoms, which seems very unlikely if it is CBD.
The Walkers refute the allegations, but The Observer is highly reputable paper that would not have published the story without being certain of the facts and clearing them with their lawyers. Will the books and the film now be withdrawn? Netflix will have made a significant investment. It is one thing to write a novel with fictitious events based around real experiences, but quite another to publish autobiographies whose veracity is now in serious question.
What is the legal position?
I will be very interested to see what happens next.
I, too, read about this, Nigel. If only she’d written the book as fiction rather than memoir! But it probably wouldn’t have become a bestseller.
I thought The Salt Path was a good read when I read it a couple of years ago, and I was impressed that it had been turned into a film, and with the actors it attracted.
The storm that’s blown up now following the Observer article is interesting, I think. I was talking the controversy over just the other day with a Swede who reads English a lot. (She manages my local English bookshop.) She was puzzled by the the whole affair. “But it’s autofiction,” she said. I said I wasn’t sure that’s a widely recognised genre in the English speaking world.
I can’t say I feel cheated by any of the revelations that came out of the Observer article, and I don’t think they undermine the book. Don’t we all accept that any story we tell – even one based on true events – is bound to be selective in its facts and sequence? There’s art involved whatever we write.
I can see that there will be people who are incensed at the Walkers making money by writing about things which were not ‘them overcoming adversity’ but the result of their fraudulently depriving others of their money. However, if the book is well-written it must be valued for its quality.
Every time I write something which is in any way bordering on biographical, whether of my own or others’ lives, my younger sister will ‘put me right’ about the facts, even when these took place before she was born, or I have the evidence of proof to support my version. I don’t argue with her – one can’t win. However our recollections of events are all personal, and change over time.
I wonder if Raynor Winn’s book would have been a best-seller if she’d admitted to fraud and justice catching up with her, and the need to disappear? Perhaps it still would have been, but she chose to write it in a way that would elicit sympathy. That doesn’t make me want to reward her, but it would be a shame to ignore a good story. I may just sit on the fence…
I can see that there will be people who are incensed at the Walkers making money by writing about things which were not ‘them overcoming adversity’ but the result of their fraudulently depriving others of their money. However, if the book is well-written it must be valued for its quality.
Every time I write something which is in any way bordering on biographical, whether of my own or others’ lives, my younger sister will ‘put me right’ about the facts, even when these took place before she was born, or I have the evidence of proof to support my version. I don’t argue with her – one can’t win. However our recollections of events are all personal, and change over time.
I wonder if Raynor Winn’s book would have been a best-seller if she’d admitted to fraud and justice catching up with her, and the need to disappear? Perhaps it still would have been, but she chose to write it in a way that would elicit sympathy. That doesn’t make me want to reward her, but it would be a shame to ignore a good story. I may just sit on the fence…
Nigel – have a look at Jo (The Book Geek)’s review of it on Goodreads. You’ll enjoy it.