The Fabulist

Unlike many other people on the planet, I had not read The Salt Path (Winn, 2018), the UK book relating the story of Raynor and Moth Winn, and their 1000km walk around the South East coast of the UK. I came late to the memoir, thinking that perhaps I might like to see the film of the same name starring Gillian Anderson (Elliot & Lenkiewicz, 2024) and skip the book, as maybe it wasn't quite my cup of tea. 

However, just as I was thinking of catching the film on a streaming service, I instead inadvertently caught the vlogs of Chloe Hadjimatheou (The Observer UK, 2025): and found that apparently the premise that the book was "an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story" was about as "life-affirming[ly] true" (Penguin New Zealand) as Donald Trump's orange facial tan. 

If you have not heard of the Salt Path before, the Penguin blurb reads "Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall", adding that this was "a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways" (2026). 

Quite unexpected, if what the Observer and the BBC are now uncovering is anything to go by (Edwards, 2026; Sky TV, 2025; The Observer UK, 2025). Apparently the reasons for the losing their home are not as portrayed; the disease Moth has - short for Timothy, btw - seems unlikely to be as serious as portrayed (Sky TV, 2025; The Observer UK, 2025); that they "had nothing left" was not true (they owned and still own land near Bordeaux; Edwards, 2026; Penguin New Zealand, 2026; Sky TV, 2025; The Observer UK, 2025); that Raynor Winn was a first time author was also not true (Edwards, 2026); and that Raynor Winn was not Raynor Winn, but Sally Walker (Edwards, 2026; Sky TV, 2025; The Observer UK, 2025). If you are interested in following either the book or the investigative story, check out the references below to learn more.

But why I am writing this post is a sense of curiosity, as to why someone would publish something that was not true - and likely verifiable as not true - as truth? Why on earth would Raynor/Sally not have simply written the book as fiction? If she had, no one would have batted an eyelid. Glossing over the facts for the sake of the narrative would have been utterly to be expected. The problem arises when we present something as true when it isn't.  

In turn, this made me wonder if Raynor/Sally was what used to be called a 'fabulist'; that in her head the boundaries between truth, reality and her imagination are so blurry that, in the words of the Red Queen, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast" becomes de rigeur (Carroll, 1887, p. 100). As the OED says, a fabulist is someone who can "make the wolves converse with the lambs", "who relates fables or legends; a composer of apologues" and are a "professional story-teller" (Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 640). If perhaps we consider Raynor/Sally a fabulist, it takes some of the heat out of the "he said" "she said" stuff. 

But then there is the issue of publisher's ethics: was there a lack of due diligence by Penguin Random House? Or should we just accept that a memoir will be selective rear-visioning, and so not put too much stock in such books? How do we verify that the story that the author has submitted for publication actually "true" to a relatively high value of veracity?  There have been many memoirs where the memoir-truth is a Donald Trump truth (i.e. unrelated to truth). I am thinking Go Ask Alice; Memoirs of a Geisha; The Honored Society; and a Million Little Pieces. All good stories. Just not truth.

It is an interesting issue. Bigger brains than mine will have to figure it out.

Sam

References:

Carroll, L. (1872). Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There. MacMillan and Co.

Edwards, A.-F. (2026). Secrets of the Salt Path [podcast]. BBC Radio Wales. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/secrets-of-the-salt-path/id1883980919

Penguin New Zealand. (2026). The Salt Path: Raynor Winn. https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-salt-path-9781405972147

Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.) (1989). Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., Vol V Dvandia-Follis). Clarendon Press.

Sky TV. (2025, December 19). The Salt Path Scandal | Official Trailer | Sky [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/UY2ivdm9obY

The Observer UK, (2025, July 6). The Salt Path lies: how a blockbuster book was spun from deceit and desperation | The Observer [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/UY2ivdm9ob

Winn, R. (2018). The Salt Path. Penguin Random House.