The Salt Path author admits past financial dispute, defends truth of memoir
Raynor Winn has broken her silence over claims she fabricated key elements of her best-selling memoir, saying she ‘deeply regrets’ mistakes but calling some allegations ‘grotesquely unfair.’
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn has admitted to a past financial dispute with a former employer, saying she “deeply regrets” any mistakes made, but maintains that her bestselling memoir is a true account of a “capsule of time” in her and her husband’s lives.
In a lengthy public statement published to her website, Winn responded to allegations put forward in an investigation last week by The Observer, which reported claims she had embezzled £64,000 from an estate agency where she once worked, and misrepresented her husband’s diagnosis with a rare neurological condition.
In The Observer’s report, Ros Hemmings, the widow of Winn’s former employer, alleged the author took the money while working as a part-time bookkeeper for her husband, Martin Hemmings.
Winn admitted that a settlement was reached but said she was never charged, and stressed the matter had no bearing on the events described in The Salt Path.
“Mr Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police, accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions. I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened,” she wrote.
“The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties… A part of that settlement was that I would pay money to Mr Hemmings on a ‘non-admissions basis’.”
She added: “Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
The Salt Path, which has sold more than two million copies and inspired a hit film adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, traces how Winn and her husband, Moth, lost their 17th-century home in rural Wales after a failed investment with a friend. The loss inspired the couple to embark on a 630-mile trek along Britain’s South West Coast Path while coping with Moth’s diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration (CBD).
The book was described by publisher Penguin as “unflinchingly honest”. But The Observer’s investigation, based on interviews and legal documents, alleged the couple’s home was lost as a result of the embezzlement case, and questioned the accuracy of Moth’s diagnosis.
Winn pushed back firmly on the article’s portrayal of her husband’s health, calling the claims “grotesquely unfair” and “highly misleading”.
“Among The Observer’s many accusations, the most heart breaking is the suggestion that Moth has made up his illness,” Winn wrote. “This utterly vile, unfair, and false suggestion has emotionally devasted Moth, who has fought so hard against the insidious condition of Corticobasal Syndrome.”
Winn shared redacted excerpts from medical clinic letters that seemingly confirmed that Moth has been treated for corticobasal syndrome (CBS) “for many years”. She wrote it was “deeply personal information that no-one should ever be forced to share”, but necessary to counter “unfounded” claims.
“CBS is a rare condition, about which we still know very little. I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations.”
In one letter, dated 2015, a consultant neurologist speculated that Moth could be affected “very mildly” by the condition. In another, from February this year, a different consultant described his case as “unusual”: “The clinical course in this case has been so atypical that we shouldn’t discount any possibility. His clinical story has been unique.”
Winn added: “I have never sought to offer medical advice in my books or suggest that walking might be some sort of miracle cure for CBS. I am simply charting Moth’s own personal journey and battle with his illness, and what has helped him.”
“The diagnosis doesn’t come from a simple test, but rather from a long and complex route of observation, where sufferers may have symptoms for many years before they finally reach a diagnosis.
“Even then, many sufferers’ symptoms present in an atypical way. They might not present with the same symptoms, occurring in the same order, or with the same severity. As I’ve explained many times in my books, we will always be grateful that Moth’s version of CBS is indolent. Its slow progression has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him. Others aren’t so lucky.”
She rejected the claim that her and Moth’s property in rural Wales was repossessed as a result of that dispute. Instead, she wrote the financial issues described in The Salt Path — involving a friend referred to as “Cooper” — were entirely separate.
“We were uneasy, but after so many years, it seemed like a way to finally resolve the issue,” she wrote. “We trusted that Cooper would honour his word … But he didn’t … And our home of over twenty years, that we had lovingly restored with our own hands, was gone.”
Winn also addressed The Observer’s reporting on a rural property in France, denying she and Moth ever lived there. “What we own in France is an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch … The insinuation that we were not homeless, the central premise of the book, is utterly unfounded.”
Her statement comes amid mounting fallout over the memoir’s credibility. PSPA, the leading UK charity for people with CBD, cut ties with the couple following the investigation, saying it was “shocked and disappointed” and that too many questions “remain unanswered”.
Publisher Penguin has also responded, stating that it “undertook all the necessary prepublication due diligence”, including a legal review and a warranty clause requiring the author to guarantee factual accuracy. The publisher said it had received no prior complaints about the book’s content.
Winn said The Observer declined an offer from her lawyers to discuss the allegations privately before publication. She ended her statement by thanking supporters and standing by her work.
“I can’t allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many,” she wrote. “The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me … It’s not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time … a place of hope.”
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