Penguin defends publishing The Salt Path after embezzlement row

Telegraph

09-07-2025

Penguin has defended its publication of The Salt Path, saying it undertook due diligence and received a legal assurance from Raynor Winn that the book was factually true.
Winn signed a contract which contained a standard warranty clause stating that the contents of the book were accurate.
But her account of losing her farmhouse because of a 'bad investment', while her husband was dealing with a diagnosis of a degenerative disease, has been called into question.
An Observer investigation claimed that Winn and her husband, Moth, were in financial difficulty because she was caught embezzling funds from her employer.
Medical experts also queried Moth's diagnosis, as the life expectancy for sufferers with his illness is about six to eight years. According to Winn, he has been living with the condition for 18 years with no apparent, visible side effects.
The investigation also revealed the couple's real names to be Sally and Tim Walker.
In a statement, Penguin said: 'Penguin (Michael Joseph) published The Salt Path in 2018 and, like many readers, we were moved and inspired by Raynor's story and its message of hope.
'Penguin undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read, as is standard with most works of non-fiction.'
The publisher said that, prior to being contacted by the Observer, it 'had not received any concerns about the book's content'.
In a statement released by her lawyers, Winn said the article was 'highly misleading'.
She said: 'We are taking legal advice and won't be making any further comment at this time.
'The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.'
The bestselling book spawned two sequels and was recently turned into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
Promoting the film with Isaacs on BBC's The One Show last month, Winn said: 'My husband, Moth, and I were living in our idyllic little home in Wales, a place we'd built and restored over 20 years.
'In the background to that, we'd had a financial dispute with a lifetime friend that ended in court.'
Isaacs interjected: 'You got conned out of everything. You can't say it, but I can.'
Winn said that, in the week they were evicted from their home, Moth was diagnosed with 'a neurodegenerative condition that has no treatment and no cure'.
Doctors told him that he would struggle to climb stairs, but the couple embarked on a 630-mile coastal walk.
Isaacs said of the couple: 'He was given very little time to live. And they walked and they froze and they starved and they encountered extraordinary beauty and extraordinary brutality.
'And his condition started to reverse, for reasons nobody knows to this day.'
In an interview with the Guardian in May, Anderson was asked for her first impressions of Winn. She replied: 'I was surprised at how guarded she was.'