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The author of bestselling memoir The Salt Path has described enduring some of the "hardest days" of her life whilst defending her book against claims that parts of it were fabricated. Raynor Winn's story, which has now been adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, tells how she and her husband Moth walked the South West Coast Path after losing their home.
The memoir also recounts how Moth was diagnosed with a neurological condition called corticobasal degeneration. However, The Observer newspaper reported that Winn may have misrepresented the events that led to the couple losing their home and suggested that medical experts had doubts over Moth's diagnosis.
Author defends husband's illness
On Wednesday, Winn posted clinic letters on Instagram addressed to Timothy Walker, which she said showed that "he is treated for CBD/S and has been for many years". The Observer had reported that the couple's legal names are Sally and Timothy Walker.
She wrote: "The last few days have been some of the hardest of my life. Heart breaking accusations that Moth has made up his illness have been made, leaving us devastated." In a statement on her website, she said that the article was "grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and seeks to systematically pick apart my life".
Memoir focuses on specific period
Winn explained that The Salt Path is about what happened to her and Moth after they lost their home and found themselves homeless on the headlands of the south west. She said it was not about every event in their lives, but rather about "a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope".
She added: "The journey held within those pages is one of salt and weather, of pain and possibility. And I can't allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many." In The Salt Path, the couple lose their house due to a bad business investment.
Newspaper raises questions
However, The Observer reported that the couple lost their home after an accusation that Winn had stolen thousands of pounds from her employer. The newspaper also said it had spoken to medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having corticobasal degeneration, given his lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.
Publishing house Penguin said it "undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence", including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read. It added: "Prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book's content."
(PA/London) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
