Unless you’ve been away walking a remote coastal trail since July, you’ll probably already know the the eye-popping story of best-selling memoir The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. The book was recently turned into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, but now faces serious allegations of falsehood following an Observer investigation by reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou.
In her 2018 book, Winn describes the heart-rending journey she and her terminally husband, Moth, made on foot when they were left destitute after a financial deal faltered and they lost their home. But Sky’s new well-organised documentary, The Salt Path Scandal, follows Hadjimatheou as she describes her gradual uncovering of a very different Raynor and Moth, known to their families as Sally and Tim Walker. You’d think they’d have kept that surname considering the content of the books.
Taking in a wealth of new details that have emerged since the summer, this documentary crams in the highlights from a complex story of alleged theft and deception dating back decades.
Handsome drone shots of the South West Coast Path conjur the romance of Winn’s tale: how their enforced communion with nature miraculously reversed Moth’s symptoms despite his diagnosis with CBD, a rare and irreversibly progressive brain condition. It is a wholesome yarn spun perfectly into a tapestry of pure hope and triumph over adversity – one that greatly affected the book’s millions of readers. It is only when Hadjimatheou tugged on a single thread that the whole thing began to unravel.
Gillian Anderson as Raynor Winn and Jason Isaacs as Moth Winn in The Salt Path (Photo: PA)In one of the most difficult scenes of the documentary, she meets John Todd, one of those inspired readers, himself diagnosed with CBD in 2023. The book certainly gave him hope. He was alone with his diagnosis until he met Moth through the pages of The Salt Path. The subsequent Observer investigation devastated him and left him alone with his disease again. He’ll cope, he says, but his wife (who didn’t appear on camera) may never recover.
squareEMILY WATKINSThe unexpected consequences of 'The Salt Path' scandal
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A neurologist agrees that Moth’s demonstrable good health over 18 years on from diagnosis is not consistent with the disease, and in fact, he’s amazed that the specialist they say showed them improved scans of Moth’s brain didn’t write it up for a medical journal.
The winding narrative takes in former friends and colleagues who accuse the couple of theft and leaving a trail of emotional destruction. Hadjimahteou persuades members of the Walkers’ own family to go on record – some of them anonymously – to talk about what they say were multiple thefts from elderly family members.
In a hotel scene at the end of the programme, the reporter asks the Walkers’ relatives about their experiences of Sally and Tim. There are a lot of tears and several letters shown that they say are confessions from Sally Walker, describing the thefts she carried out over years and asking the family not to take it any further because, the letter adds, her existing police record will see her go to prison this time.
Winn’s memoir became a best-seller (Photo: AP)In the court of TV, this clear-sighted documentary finds the couple guilty of a lifetime of appalling behaviour, even if it doesn’t overtly state it. But the tears of the people who seem to credibly accuse them speak loudly and definitively. The Walkers themselves declined to take part in the documentary.
So many questions remain: if they lied about so much, is Moth actually ill? What did Winn’s publishers know and when? In her most recent Observer article, Hadjimatheou says one of those anonymous relatives “twice tried to get in touch with Penguin about the inaccuracies in the memoir but wasn’t taken seriously”.
When the allegations first arose, Penguin stated: “Prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content.” They also declined an interview for this film.
Winn’s next book, published by Penguin, is still available to pre-order for publication in October next year. And as one former employee of the publisher points out to Hadjimatheou: “Your investigation actually sent The Salt Path back to the top of the best sellers chart.”
Even a whole series wouldn’t be enough to fully uncover the truth here.
The Salt Path Scandal is streaming on Now
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