The Salt Path Scandal (2025) Movie Script
1
(WAVES LAPPING)
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
NEWS ANCHOR:
We spoke to Raynor
and asked her why she felt
her story connected
with so many people.
RAYNOR: It's that
question of what we do
when everything falls apart,
when life really
hits the wall,
How do we stand up again?
How do we go forward?
I think The Salt Path
had such a universal, um...
theme to it, really,
and brings up so many of those
shared human emotions.
PRESENTER 1:
On the programme tonight,
The Salt Path.
PRESENTER 2: The Salt Path.
PRESENTER 3:
It's one of the best-selling
non-fiction paperbacks.
Yes, Raynor Winn
and her husband Moth
lost their home,
their business, and learnt Moth
was terminally ill
all in the space
of a few days.
The Salt Path tells the story
of how walking the coast
gave them new hope.
PRESENTER:
Now that memorable story
of one couple's epic trek
along the South West coastal
path has been turned into
a film.
(PEOPLE CALL OUT)
WOMAN: Gillian!
HOST: What's it like
seeing Gillian Anderson
and Jason Isaacs
portraying your story?
- Well, even now,
it's not quite real.
- (BOTH LAUGH)
REPORTER:
A woman who, in the same week,
had her home repossessed
and discovered her
husband had received
a terminal diagnosis.
What do you do?
They walked away, literally.
Setting out with a tent
and small change.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
TOM:
The newspaper investigation
has revealed questions
over the truth
behind The Salt Path.
An Observer investigation
suggesting she misrepresented
how they lost their home
and casting doubt
on his illness
has left many
feeling betrayed.
REPORTER: "Unflinchingly
honest" was the phrase
used by the publishers
but a story broken
by Chloe Hadjimatheou
in The Observer,
now, questions
have been raised.
Raynor Winn herself
has fiercely defended
the veracity of her book.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I think what's crazy
about this,
is that each time
I turn a corner with it,
I notice another thread
dangling.
I pull and there's
something bigger.
There just seems to be
more and more revelations.
RAYNOR'S NIECE:
My best friend did it
in her book club,
and I went,
"That's my aunt!"
- Everywhere you turned,
it was there.
- Yeah.
What was it like for you guys
when my first article
was published?
I called my sister.
I called her and said,
"Oh, my God,
it's finally happening.
Someone knows."
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
(SEAGULLS SQUAWK)
It's there now.
My name's Chloe Hadjimatheou.
I'm an investigative journalist
for The Observer newspaper.
Back in March this year,
a member of the public
got in touch with me
with a tip-off.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
I was actually in the middle
of planning a trip to Syria
to do an investigation
and suddenly this message
just popped up
on my social media.
(DINGING)
It was a complete stranger
who said they had
a story for me
that I might want to look into
and it was about a book
called The Salt Path.
When you get a source,
like a tip-off,
I mean,
my first instinct
is not to trust it.
And at the time,
I had absolutely no idea
what this book
The Salt Path was,
and never heard
of its author Raynor Winn.
Being honest,
just didn't understand what
the big deal was.
Definitely a favorite
is The Salt Path
by Raynor Winn.
It was visually captivating.
In my top five books.
Read the book.
It tells the story of how Raynor
and her husband Moth Winn...
Lost their money
and had their
house repossessed.
And they hike,
live rough
along the coastline.
Discovered Moth had
terminal illness.
Terminal diagnosis and they
decided to just up sticks
and go walking
the English coast.
Life can't get much worse,
can it?
HADJIMATHEOU: Readers loved it
and the book sold more than
two million copies,
but they fell in love
with a story they were told
was real.
And I was about to uncover
something very different.
There are very, very few stories
that actually pan out
and turn into something big.
So when I replied,
I had no idea that
this message would end up
leading to one of
the biggest scoops
of my journalistic career.
The first thing
this person said to me was,
the author of this "true story"
had been making things up.
And they had pieces
of key information for me.
The first was
their real names.
They're not really
Raynor Winn and Moth,
legal names are
Sally and Tim Walker.
They also told me
the name of the village
where they had started out
in Wales, where they'd
lost their house.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
None of this is public.
And, I have to say,
journalistically,
my instinct is,
if your real name
isn't out there,
what are you hiding?
That's the first thing
that made me think maybe
there's something in this.
First thing I did
was go out and buy myself
a copy of The Salt Path
and read the book.
(SOULFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: In the courtroom,
I watched as Moth picked
at a white fleck
on the black table
in front of him.
He'd been close friends
with the man
who was making
the financial claim
against us.
I knew what he was thinking.
"How had it come to this?"
HADJIMATHEOU: So The Salt Path
opens, uh, on this really
quite tragic scene.
Raynor and Moth have just
found out that they're
losing their house
after somebody
they considered a friend
essentially conned them
out of it.
(SOULFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)
My anonymous source told me
there were these rumors
about a story in Pwllheli,
North Wales,
the town where
Raynor and Moth
had lived for years
before becoming destitute.
After I hung out
in local pubs for a day,
I ended up getting
a contact for the widow
of a man called Martin
- who ran a local estate agency
on the high street.
- (LINE RINGS)
Her name was Ros,
and she was really
the first key person
that I spoke to in
this investigation.
I said to her,
"This is going to
seem a bit weird,
an investigative journalist
from London calling you."
If I'm honest, a big part of me
thought she would say
this was rubbish,
- there was no truth
to the rumors...
- (LINE RINGS)
and Sally Walker was a lovely
person and there was nothing
more to the story.
It was shocking
to hear her tone of voice
because it was clear
she's waiting
for somebody to call.
- ROS: (OVER PHONE) Yes?
- Hello. I'm the journalist
from London
- trying to reach you.
- Yes.
I am currently investigating
a couple who used to live
in Pwllheli.
ROS: I thought you might be.
Their names have changed,
haven't they?
- HADJIMATHEOU:
Yes, they have. Yes.
- ROS: Yes.
What did you think
when you heard a journalist
from the Observer,
- looking for you?
- I thought,
"I think I know what this
is about, because the film
had come out."
HADJIMATHEOU:
How did you know Tim
and Sally Walker?
ROS: I knew Tim Walker first.
I worked for the National Trust
and he was the gardener there.
He was always
extremely well-dressed.
A man always with a cravat.
- Did you like him?
- Yes, he was pleasant.
Very pleasant.
And I think Sally
started working for Martin
in 2001.
- HADJIMATHEOU: What was
Sally like?
- ROS: Very quiet.
Never really said anything.
- Did Martin like her?
- Yes.
Seemed to get on with her.
But Martin generally
liked most people.
He was very kind
and generous.
Never wanted
to let anybody down.
He was doing
structural surveys
for house buyers.
He was drawing plans
for people to the point
where he had so many jobs
that one of his other staff
would just stick them up
in lists down the wall
and go, "Have you
done that, Martin?"
You must have been
doing very well
if he was that busy--
We should have been
and that was the problem,
we weren't.
We had no money
for years and years
and years.
And the first we really knew
something was wrong
was in 2008.
Martin said, "I gave Sally
the cash to go and pay in,
otherwise we would not be
able to pay the wages."
And he said,
"The cash didn't go
into the bank."
Martin started
looking backwards
through every cheque
with the bank manager,
he said, "That's not
my signature.
That's not my signature."
That's the point she said,
"I will ring the police."
Martin and I
took the books home
for the whole time
she'd worked for us
and started
working backwards.
It took months.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In the end, how much
was missing altogether?
We felt there was 64,000.
Had she been
stealing for years?
She had, yes.
- What did you do?
- Oh, we told the police.
- What did they say?
- They said,
"We'll arrest her."
- They took her into custody?
- They did.
And...
All she said
was "no comment"
all day.
And as she was not considered
a danger to the community,
we let her go home
on the understanding she'd
come back the next morning.
And he said, "It's a bit
embarrassing we've lost her."
(LINE RINGING)
- WOMAN: Hello.
- Hi, how are you?
Hi, Chloe.
HADJIMATHEOU: Ros gave me
the number of one of Martin's
former employees
who she says can corroborate
what she's told me.
Tell me what it was like
working for Martin.
Did Sally fit into the office
quite easily?
Was she quickly
one of the team?
WOMAN: They, as a family
kept very much to themselves,
but she would just pass
pleasantries.
She talked about her family,
her children, mainly,
you know, and everything
costing so much
and no money to do this,
that or the other.
When was the first inkling
that something was wrong
with the finances
at the office?
Did-- Was there
any kind of, um, clue
before Martin found out?
The one occasion
I can remember
was when
the accountants phoned
and they wanted
to speak to Martin about
the new engine on his van.
And then Sally saw the message
and just, and she, said,
"I know what that's about,
I'll deal with that."
And so... And so Martin
didn't have a new engine
in his van then?
No, that was just
a made-up invoice.
Oh, wow.
WOMAN: And she came in
one day and said,
"Guess what
I did last night."
she said, "We've gone
and bought a house in France."
HADJIMATHEOU: Wow.
WOMAN:
Both Martin and myself
were thinking,
"Wow, that's
very nice for you."
(CHUCKLES)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
RAYNOR: Moth and I met
when we were teenagers,
when we were 30-ish,
found an idyllic little ruin
in the hills of Wales
that we spent 20 years
restoring.
Our children grew up there,
kept sheep, grew vegetables,
that's our life,
but in the background,
we had a financial dispute
with a lifetime friend
that ended in a court case.
Saw us being served
an eviction notice
from our home.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
ROS: Somebody,
several years later,
I think it was ex-office staff,
were given the book.
And they said
they'd read it
and that Sally said
she'd lost all her money
in a business deal.
And it made me so cross.
I thought why can't she just say
she'd done this terrible thing,
stolen the money,
lost her house,
why doesn't she just...
Be honest?
HADJIMATHEOU:
So, what happened
after Sally went missing?
ROS:
The next thing we heard,
our solicitor said
that an unnamed client
wanted to pay back
everything she owed Martin
on the understanding
that he would sign
an agreement
that he wouldn't
disclose this.
Martin signed this agreement?
He signed it, I didn't.
It's nothing to do with me.
- You got the money back.
- Yeah.
As part of the deal,
Martin had to agree
- never to talk about it again.
- He did, yes.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What I'm interested in is,
why the police decided
not to pursue the case
anyway?
ROS: What I gathered
from the Detective Constable
who dealt with us,
it's not really worth it.
They'll probably just tell her
off and give her a bit of
community service.
You've got the money back,
go away and enjoy it.
Just soul destroying,
and for Martin
it was soul destroying.
Four years later, he died.
Poor Martin. It's awful.
NARRATOR:
I will proceed to judgement.
I'll give possession
to claimant.
You will have vacated
the property in seven days.
And now we had lost it all,
penniless, homeless.
HADJIMATHEOU:
There's this moment
when a story comes your way
when you realize,
there is a mystery
to be unpicked
and it's
incredibly exciting.
Raynor Winn,
famous international author,
had been accused of stealing
tens of thousands of pounds
from Ros's husband, Martin.
But I had more work to do
to understand
how all this related
to the story Raynor
was telling in her memoir
and repeating
in countless interviews.
ALEX: For anybody
who doesn't
know the story,
can you explain
why yourself and
your husband
embarked on this journey,
this walk?
My husband Moth and I,
we'd had a...
financial dispute
with a lifetime friend
- that ended in--
- JASON: They got conned.
You can't say it but I can,
you got conned.
Anyway, we ended
in a court case.
That saw us being evicted
from our home.
HADJIMATHEOU: I wanted
to find out exactly why
Raynor and Moth were evicted
and forced to leave Wales.
And a logical starting point
was their house in Pwllheli.
This is where they lived
for two decades,
where they raised their children
and which they eventually lost.
(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
We stood at the front door,
the bailiffs on the other side
waiting to change the locks,
to bar us
from our old lives.
We were about to leave
the dimly lit,
centuries old house that
had held us cocooned
for 20 years.
It was our home,
our business,
our sanctuary.
So l didn't
expect it to end.
MAXINE: Watch your head
as you come in.
That's it.
HADJIMATHEOU:
So this must be the barn
they spent ages renovating.
MAXINE: Yes.
That's right, yeah.
It had been empty
for three and a half,
four years
before I bought it
from the bank.
I was up in the corner
and I saw what I thought
was rough plaster.
When I looked closer,
I found an inscription.
- Can I have a look, where?
- Just in the corner here.
- Yeah.
- I can make it out...
- MAXINE: Just tucked away.
- "Tim heart Sal.
Kiss, kiss, kiss."
- There's a date.
- Yeah.
I think it says 2007.
HADJIMATHEOU:
When I was coming in,
I spoke to one
of your neighbors.
They told me the Walkers fled
in the middle of the night.
MAXINE:
I'd heard that.
HADJIMATHEOU: When the bailiffs
came in the morning,
the property was empty.
They'd ripped everything out
and gone.
MAXINE:
All of a sudden,
there were vans
coming and going,
and next day,
they'd disappeared.
NARRATOR: The men in black
began hammering
at the door at 9:00 a.m.
but we weren't ready.
The bailiffs moved to the back,
banging on the windows,
trying all the catches,
looking for a way in.
Hiding under the stairs
had seemed a good option.
HADJIMATHEOU: So you moved
in here years after
the Walkers had left.
But you're still
getting letters for them.
MAXINE: Yeah, yeah.
From day one, you know.
Nearly every day
something was coming
or every week I should say,
and they were,
um, from solicitors,
from bailiffs,
and it just
went on and on.
HADJIMATHEOU:
They owed a lot of money.
MAXINE:
I presume so, yeah.
The bailiffs were coming.
It was a bit scary.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What did people locally
think of them?
Did they have
a good reputation?
I never heard
anything positive.
People like to gossip,
don't they? And they
probably like to gossip
on the negative stuff
more than the positive stuff.
But curiously,
I was just thinking recently,
I never met anyone
who said they
were their friends.
Which is a bit curious
for a couple who'd
lived here for a long time.
NARRATOR: We'd lost.
Lost the case.
Lost the house.
And lost ourselves.
It was then
I spotted a book
in a packing box.
I'd read 500 Mile Walkies
in my 20s.
The story of a man who walked
the South West Coast path
with his dog.
"We could just walk."
It was ridiculous to say
but I said it anyway.
"Walk?'"
"Yeah, just walk'"
Could Moth walk it?
HADJIMATHEOU:
Sally and Tim did have
their house repossessed.
But I still didn't know
how it was linked
to the money
Sally had used to pay back
Ros's husband, Martin.
I needed more evidence,
I needed to dig, I needed
to find legal documents.
When I went
to the Land Registry,
I got this letter
saying the property
was repossessed by somebody
who had lent this couple
more than 100,000
with their house
as collateral for that loan.
After some digging,
I discovered that the lender
was a relative of Tim Walker
and that he'd passed away
in 2015.
It took me a long time
but I managed to trace
his ex-wife.
She wanted
to remain anonymous,
but she remembered
that one day in 2010,
Sally had turned up
out of the blue to speak
to her husband.
REBECCA: He told me
she was on the run
from the police.
He said,
"No member of my family
is going to prison."
HADJIMATHEOU:
This woman,
I'm calling her Rebecca,
she told me that her husband
lent her 100,000.
This was the money Sally used
to pay back Martin Hemmings.
A family loan
had come to her rescue,
but later, when Tim's
relative got into
financial trouble himself,
he transferred the debt
to people he owed money to.
And they called it in.
Sally and Tim couldn't pay,
and that's how they
lost their house.
It was like
a curtain being pulled.
Suddenly, you get
this view of a story
that is so different.
Raynor Winn looked like
a totally different person
suddenly.
She had taken
real aspects of her story
and recast them
in a very different light.
And maybe we all do this
to some extent.
But when you market a memoir
as "unflinchingly honest"
and you're prepared
to go on the sofa
on The One Show
and say,
"This is the truth."
I think there is
a public interest
in telling the reality
is very, very different.
RAYNOR:
We ended in a court case.
That saw us being evicted from
our home.
They gave us
a few days to move out.
And in that week,
uh, Moth had what we thought
was just a routine hospital
appointment
but it turned out
to be anything but.
He was diagnosed with a--
a neurodegenerative condition.
HADJIMATHEOU:
The start of The Salt Path
tells us the story
of Moth and Raynor losing
their house,
but what makes it so dramatic
is the very same week,
Moth also gets
a terminal diagnosis.
I now knew the story
behind their eviction
wasn't true,
but the anonymous tip-off
that started my investigation
raised another question
about Moth's health.
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
JASON: Told to go home.
RAYNOR: Yeah.
Get ready to say goodbye,
avoid the stairs.
They did say.
That was the only advice
they could give,
don't get too tired.
Be careful on the stairs.
So we walked 630 miles.
- (ALL LAUGH)
- Instead.
NARRATOR:
I don't think I can bear
to stay around here.
I need to put some space
between Wales and us.
It's too painful to stay.
I took a deep breath,
"Let's pack
the rucksacks then,
and make it up
as we go along."
"South West Coast path
it is then."
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I read about CBD,
I spoke to some experts
and learnt that it was
a rare degenerative disease.
Patients suffering
with this condition,
uh, would very rapidly lose
the use of their limbs.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
It made me want
to understand more
about the walk
that had apparently
healed Moth.
So I set off
to retrace their steps.
One of the first people
Raynor and Moth meet
is in Glastonbury,
where they stop off
near the start of the path.
(CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: Look at this,
I'd spotted the poster
all over town.
Healing with angels
at heavenly end.
3 each. Shall we go?
Just for the Glastonbury
experience
and what if
it wasn't just hokum,
what if it could help him?
(CHORAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
- Okay, so we'd start
with a candle.
- (HANG PLAYING)
And then just gently
set fire to the sage
and have a big...
HADJIMATHEOU:
I was curious to see
what Michelle,
real name Daisy Foss,
remembered about them.
NARRATOR: Michelle set
her stage to the tune
of South American pipes
and whale calls,
lighting a burner that filled
the room with
"breath of heaven" smoke.
I know what we called it
in college
and it wasn't
"breath of heaven."
(HANG CONTINUES PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
Can you remember
when Raynor Winn and Moth
came to one
of your sessions?
I do remember them.
I've gone over the evening
and I close my eyes.
I can see them
in front of me.
They're lying
next to each other.
Her description
of the entire
sort of session,
there's an insinuation
there is kind of marijuana
being pumped into the room.
Was there any marijuana,
- were people
smoking it in there--
- Absolutely not, no.
Hundred percent, not.
What she would smell
was the sage.
In the book,
in her description
of the session,
it sounds like Moth finds it
very difficult to get up
and it has
a sort of bad effect
on him, physically.
NARRATOR:
Moth carried on snoring.
I prodded him awake,
"Moth, get up."
"I can't."
"I know you're comfy
but just get up now."
"No, I can't.
I can't move."
"Fuck, do you
think this is it?"
"Am I paralyzed?
I can't move."
If somebody
was really poorly,
I'd give extra
hands-on healing.
So I'm not sure
if I did that to Moth.
But I-- that's what
I would've done
if somebody was
in great pain.
I don't remember him
being in great pain.
I remember him
being very deep
in relaxation.
That's where
the snoring came from.
HADJIMATHEOU: Raynor writes
that it takes two weeks
of sleeping at a friend's
for Moth's pain and sickness
to wear off.
They then get the bus
to Minehead, in Somerset
to start the walk,
as seen in this
revealing interview.
RAYNOR: I was 50.
My husband was
a little older.
He was struggling
to put his coat on
without help.
And just to get the rucksack
onto his back was hard work
because I had to lift it up for
him to put his arms through.
So--
It wasn't possibly the most
responsible thing that we
could've chosen to do.
NARRATOR: It would mean
climbing the equivalent
of Mount Everest
nearly four times.
Walking 630 miles on a path
often no more than a foot wide.
Sleeping wild, living wild.
HADJIMATHEOU:
So Raynor and Moth
are doing this on tiny budget,
less than 50 a week
and they're surviving
on a really low calorie intake,
just essentially super noodles.
It's the last thing
you wanna do
on a walk like this
especially if
physically unwell.
There's this moment
where they cross over from
Devon into Cornwall.
It's a hot day,
they're on a beach.
They're thirsty and they bump
into a guy called Grant
who buys them
some ice creams.
There you go.
20, 21...
My round.
- Oh, right.
- Hey.
Hi. Thanks.
HADJIMATHEOU: I'd been
desperately trying to find out
who the real Grant was,
and all of a sudden,
I get an email from
a guy called Warren
who said he'd read my article
and he wanted to talk.
- Hi. How you doing?
- Hello.
- HADJIMATHEOU:
So nice to finally meet you.
- You too. Hello.
I don't know, is it,
"Hi, Grant" or "Hi, Warren"?
So anyway, the book,
look I've brought my copy.
I read your article and thought,
"That's those people we met."
I remember talking
how they'd lost their house.
They got done in
on a business deal.
We drove back in my van.
And they came in
and they had lasagna.
NARRATOR:
We sat in the back of Grant's
sleek 4x4.
"We've got a huge lasagna,
so plenty of food."
All we heard was lasagna
and beer.
Suddenly our legs
weren't so tired.
WARREN:
They stayed in the orchard
then had bacon sandwiches
in the morning
and off they went.
It strikes me
you took in these two people
who you could see were tired,
were having a hard time of it.
But in the book it makes it
sound like you're
quite a superficial,
- very sort of well-off--
- That's an understatement.
It's not nice.
Not kind.
It's this description of these
three extremely sexy women
who sort of surround Moth
and flutter around him
and take him to another room
and massaging him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Where's the pain?
- I'm a masseuse.
- Oh. Right.
- It's everywhere.
- Let her give you a massage.
Grant's got back issues.
- Give him a message.
- Want one?
Deep tissue,
it's quite intense.
Um...
Crikey, I'll have
to shower first.
The girls can sort you out.
WARREN:
He never had a massage.
Certainly our autistic son's
childminder was not gonna go
and massage
somebody else's feet.
No way.
And the other thing that really
sort of struck me is that...
You and the women
in your household
all mistook Moth
for Simon Armitage.
- Yeah.
- The poet.
And the insinuation is that,
that's the only reason
- you invited him back.
- I know.
We never thought he was a poet.
We don't know who they were
alluding to.
This idea someone
being massaged
because they're a famous poet,
what a bunch of crap, you know.
So the year that
she came is correct.
The lasagna is correct.
Yeah, but apart from that,
not many true bits
in her story. (CHUCKLES)
There's lasagna here.
HADJIMATHEOU: When Raynor
and Moth meet Grant, they're
going through a hard time.
And he's extremely kind
and generous towards them.
- Mm. It's so good.
- WARREN: It is, isn't it?
HADJIMATHEOU:
If you were walking
for days and days
eating super noodles and you
suddenly sat down and had
this...
WARREN: It'd be nice.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Grant reveals his own
life story and hardships,
but none of that
is acknowledged
by Raynor Winn in the book.
She really has
a divisive us
and them attitude
in which really her and Moth are
the only victims in the book.
This isn't just Grant.
It's with lots
of the characters
she meets along
the Salt Path.
The readers
didn't know any of that
and they opened their hearts
to Raynor and Moth
and felt very sorry for them
and the book really
resonated with them.
When I published
my investigation,
I got a number of readers
contacting me.
Most of them were furious
that they'd been duped
by the book.
I did also have people
contacting me
who were angry with me
and they felt I'd been
unfair to Raynor and Moth
and they just didn't get
why I bothered with
this investigating,
but I guess
there is, uh, sort of innate
stubbornness in me.
I don't let things go.
And if I am persuaded
there is something there
to be discovered,
I will keep going with it.
So after The Salt Path
was published,
Raynor Winn was offered
a multi-book deal.
The couple moved to Cornwall,
where she continued to write
about her and Moth's walks
across the UK.
MAN:
I've been here
since 1966.
Lived here all my life.
I don't have to walk too far
to the pub.
People are great.
It's a real nice
community feel.
We tend to get lots of walkers
doing the coast path.
Two, three, four, 50.
There you go.
- WOMAN: Ta now.
- Thank you.
I love it.
Lovely people around.
Quiet, nice little locals.
There's nowhere
quite like Cornwall.
You walk down,
everyone says "Morning."
Everyone's welcoming.
Thank you.
I'll give you
autograph later.
I'm living here
one and half
year now.
Nice, peaceful life.
Walk around,
it's beautiful people here.
Everybody, everybody.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In 2019, Raynor and Moth
moved to Hay Farm
which sits above the village
of Polruan
and it's where they lived
until 2022.
It was during this time that
she wrote both her second
book, The Wild Silence,
and her third book,
Landlines.
I tracked down
one of their neighbors
who's also an author.
I had high hopes that she'd had
a connection with Raynor Winn
and she might give me
more insight.
Hi.
All right, Squeaks.
Can we come in,
say hello?
Hello.
- Oh!
- (LAUGHS)
Lovely creatures.
- Was Raynor interested in
horses ever?
- Don't think she's horsey, no.
HADJIMATHEOU:
When's the first time
you met them?
SABERTON:
So I first met her
at an authors' event,
so in 2019, I met her
professionally.
Before I even lived here.
And then when
we bought this property,
that was when
the neighbor said to us,
"Well, my tenant,
your neighbor,
is Raynor Winn."
He said, "Obviously they're
really private people."
They've been
really hurt in the past.
And they, you know,
want to be left in peace.
I was really
respectful of that.
But I was excited
'cause it was
really nice to think
there might be
somebody nearby
to talk books to.
- HADJIMATHEOU:
What was she like?
- She was lovely.
I'd say she's very shy.
- Very nervous.
- Mmm.
SABERTON:
I put that down to the fact
I'd read the book by then.
That they'd had
such a torrid time.
Didn't want to let
anybody get close.
I really wanted to talk
about her journey
'cause in the world
of memoir writing,
she's a rock star.
But looking back,
she didn't want
to talk about it at all.
She doesn't open her,
herself to people.
But he does. Moth.
He's a very tall guy.
He's a handsome man.
Piercing eyes.
He had so much
presence.
He's warm and friendly
and talkative.
And a great raconteur.
He really did tell
some great stories.
NARRATOR: Moth spun a story
of golden summers
spent under canvas.
Of changing weather
unfolding around two people
living wild in nature.
The woman sat mesmerized
caught by his stories.
Spellbound as
people always are.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Did he seem unwell?
It's hard to say. You can't
really tell by looking,
but he always seemed full of
vitality and humor.
I didn't question it too much
'cause what sort of person
would you be if you start
questioning it.
HADJIMATHEOU: And then
what about when her book
Landlines came out?
Landlines is set
in the period
I knew them.
Right.
I was excited 'cause I thought
I'll recognize this story now
because this is
the place I live,
the farm I know,
the area that's my home.
And chapter one
is January 2021.
It's winter and it's bleak.
She's freezing cold.
She's struggling.
It was clear,
they weren't coping.
He was
deteriorating massively.
There was one awful bit
where he can't make it
to the bathroom.
I think the quote is like,
"We lay together
in a pool of pee."
And I read it and I,
I just, I started crying.
The more I read,
the worse I felt.
Because these were
my neighbors.
I thought they were
wanting to be brave.
I thought they didn't
want to let people in
because of the--
the friendships they'd had
where they're betrayed.
I felt bad for not realizing
what was going on.
But I was confused
because that situation
wasn't what I'd seen.
HADJIMATHEOU: You're seeing
him out and about
and seems okay.
He seems okay
but he's in nature,
isn't he?
The kind of secular miracle
of nature healing
so I've got this cognitive
dissonance between
what I'm seeing
and what I'm reading.
And I'm trying to equate it
in my heart and my head.
And it's-- I can't.
I went through each book.
I started to make copious notes
about what made sense
and what didn't.
And suddenly, all these
things that I'd just read
and just accepted,
when I looked at
with a more objective
and maybe
a cooler critical eye
just didn't make sense.
I'd suspended
my critical mind
and allowed myself
to fall headlong in love
with this beautiful story.
HADJIMATHEOU:
During my investigation
I was speaking to readers
of The Salt Path,
many of whom told me
they were incredibly moved
by Moth's battle
with his illness,
corticobasal degeneration.
At the start of the book,
he's struggling to get
his rucksack on
and just over a month later,
he's made this really quite
remarkable recovery
and there's a scene
where a fast, incoming tide
is threatening their tent
and he comes physically
to the rescue.
Leave the bloody tent.
I'm not leaving it.
It's our home.
(GRUNTS)
HADJIMATHEOU:
It was this moving moment
in the film as well.
Oh! Look at you.
How you can move.
Come on.
It's amazing. Ah!
(GRUNTS TRIUMPHANTLY)
(YELLING)
(SOBBING)
NARRATOR:
He'd changed.
There was no question.
He'd changed.
I'm stronger. I feel as if
I can put one foot
in front of the other
and trust
where it'll land.
(UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I started speaking
to neurologists
and what I discovered was
that Moth's condition
corticobasal degeneration
is really quite brutal
and very rapid progressing.
Is it possible
that his symptoms
were reversed
because of some kind of
chemical, biological,
medical response
to the walks that they had?
- (PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING)
- (DOG BARKS DISTANTLY)
In July, I was contacted
by a guy called John,
and he told me he had
read The Salt Path
and it had given him
a lot of hope.
He sent me this email.
"Chloe, I have
corticobasal syndrome
and feel devastated
by your revelations
about The Salt Path.
I've been reading the book
and found that my
diagnosis was similar."
JOHN: How are you?
HADJIMATHEOU: Really good
to see you.
"My wife and I were
inspired by the story and
given real hope.
If you are right
then that hope
is extinguished.
I can and will deal with it
but my wife may not."
- Have a seat.
- Thank you.
I was so affected
by that that morning.
JOHN: I remember
you saying, yeah.
Think in the email,
I probably--
I tend to tell you
what I mean.
HADJIMATHEOU:
John was diagnosed
with CBD in 2023.
Are you in any pain?
I have a lot of stiffness
and sometimes my hands
and my legs
are very stiff and painful.
How did The Salt Path book,
Raynor Winn's memoir,
first sort of enter
your consciousness?
A lady from the hospice
recommended the book
and said
there's a book out.
And she said
it's a really uplifting book
that, you know,
you might like
to read.
'Cause I'd never actually
come across anyone
with the condition.
I was engrossed in it.
Like...
I thought, "This is great",
you know?
'cause I'd started to doubt
that maybe, just maybe,
I need to sort of up my game
and fight it
'cause I wasn't fighting it,
you see,
because I'd been told
that it was pointless and
I'd just expend a lot of energy
fighting this condition.
So when I sort of
read this book
where this guy
seems to be doing
all kinds of incredible feats
of endurance and...
I was astonished.
I believed it.
I wanted to believe it.
And then
I saw your article.
I was upset.
I really didn't want
any part
of your investigation
to be correct.
HADJIMATHEOU: Moth's story
was so inspirational
to so many people
that he became an ambassador
for the charity PSPA,
which helps sufferers
with CBD.
They've since terminated
their relationship with Moth.
MOTH:
To be told you have
a terminal condition
that there's
no treatment for
and there is definitely
no cure
that was startling.
This whole CBD journey
started with a...
HADJIMATHEOU:
Dr. James Gratwicke
is a neurologist
who specializes
in corticobasal degeneration
and has been diagnosing it
for 20 years.
He was very interested
to see Moth in this video.
This is a man who claims
to have had this condition
for 18 years.
How does what you see
in this video
correspond to your experience
of treating patients
with the condition?
One thing's often very prominent
is loss of facial expression
and this is excellent
facial expression.
No problem with movement.
Certainly at 18 years,
I've never seen a CBS patient
walking very well
with good stride length.
MOTH:
CBD is a very
lonely existence.
Terminal condition, no cure.
Nobody gets it.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Dr. Gratwicke offered
to show me some scans
to demonstrate the effects
that CBD typically has
on a patient's brain.
JAMES: So what we're seeing here
is the amount of the chemical
dopamine in the brain.
The higher the amount
of dopamine chemical there,
the brighter the color.
This is what you should see
with a healthy brain.
Very, very bright signal.
What we would see
in corticobasal syndrome,
the concentration
will be less in these areas.
In a sense,
the whole brain gets darker
and points of light
are much smaller.
JAMES: Correct.
NARRATOR: Well, we've got
your DAT scan results.
Would you like to see them?
Moth glances at me.
Briefly raising an eyebrow.
"'I'd like to see the screen
lit up like a Christmas tree."
The consultant smiles.
Turning back to the screen.
"There you have it.
There's your Christmas tree."
HADJIMATHEOU:
In her third book, Landlines,
Raynor Winn talks about
Moth having
- brain scans.
- Right.
The neurologist says
the lights in Moth's brain
seem to be coming back on.
Is that something
you'd see in a patient
with corticobasal syndrome?
Um, that is not consistent
with corticobasal syndrome.
Or any Parkinsonian condition.
You won't get improvement
in a DAT scan.
It's only ever been shown
to be a progressive
degenerative process
and nothing anyone has done
has been able to increase
the brain mass
or reverse the loss of
dopaminergic cells
to make a scan brighter.
That does not happen.
And if by
some medical miracle,
- and do medical
miracles happen?
- Um, no.
HADJIMATHEOU:
And if it did happen,
would you expect that doctor
to be excited and to want
to publish about it?
It's almost a duty to publish
that kind of thing.
But you haven't
seen anyone publish
anything about somebody
with corticobasal syndrome
suddenly reversing
the condition?
If it had been published,
I would've seen it, yes.
There's no effective
treatment for it,
nothing to slow down
the progression
of the disease.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In 2023, Moth made
a rare appearance
on Rick Stein's series
in Cornwall.
RICK: Moth has thrown himself
into the art of traditional
cider making.
Much like you would chalk
the end of a snooker cue.
RICK: Amazing.
HADJIMATHEOU: This was when
he and Raynor were living
at Hay Farm close to Ruth.
- Way of controlling,
how much pressure.
- Fine tuning.
- You got this
terminal illness, is it?
- Yes, it is.
But I'm still going strong
thanks to walking
the coast path.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Moth is demonstrating
the really demanding
physical work
of traditional cider making
a full 16 years
since he claims the symptoms
of his disease began.
JAMES:
From point of diagnosis
of corticobasal syndrome,
the median survival time
is between
five to eight years.
The longest person
that's survived
I have treated, uh,
is eight or nine years.
They were requiring
24-hour care.
However difficult that is
to hear, very important
for people to know.
And giving that idea
that it could be reversed
through walking
large distances
could make patient feel
they were responsible
for its worsening,
and that would be wrong.
When we realized Moth's
was improving,
it added
a little layer of hope
into our life.
We thought
we'd never feel again.
And yeah, you can go
a long way on hope.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
JOHN:
I've always loved walking.
I really wanted
the book to be true.
HADJIMATHEOU:
How did you feel
when my article came out?
JOHN: I was angry.
The danger is that,
people are going to think
if they copy what
the Walkers did,
that everything's
gonna be hunky dory
and it'll all go away.
HADJIMATHEOU:
The idea that Raynor and Moth
hadn't been honest
about his health condition,
that's quite
a difficult thing
to report on.
And it became clear to me
very quickly
that I wouldn't be able
to prove categorically
that these people
had lied.
But what I could prove
was that their description
of the illness,
the passage of the illness
and the way in which
they'd reversed
the symptoms
was not something
that had ever
been documented
or experienced by a neurologist
I had spoken to in the UK.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
When I first set out
on this investigation,
first thing I did
was contact
Raynor and Moth.
I've contacted them
probably half a dozen times.
And they've refused
all my requests.
Raynor was initially
coming to this year's festival
to talk about her books
and her latest book
but she pulled out
of all public speaking events
when Chloe's research
was revealed.
HADJIMATHEOU:
I was invited to speak
at Dulverton Literary Festival
and it's gonna be
really interesting
to find out
what readers of
The Salt Path think now
given my investigation.
Finding out how much there was
untruth to it was just wild.
It was the part
about Moth and his illness
that really shocked me.
WOMAN:
It is a book about a walk.
Not about something
world-changing.
Just enjoy the book
that would be my view.
(CHUCKLES)
I think with every story
there's always a bit of fiction
added with the truth.
A memoir needs to be
reasonably authentic
to the truth otherwise
it's fiction, isn't it?
(APPLAUSE)
RACHEL:
So Raynor Winn continues
to maintain
and she repeats over and over,
this is the true story
of our journey,
but in publishing terms,
these terms
are very important.
You would've gone
to Penguin and say,
"What do you say,
you've published
this as a true story
of this couple's journey,
you've sold millions of copies,
they've made millions,
you've made millions
it's all a load of crap."
What did
the publishers say?
They said, "Nobody raised
any concerns with us."
They say, "We did
all due diligence."
And that's it.
That's the end of that.
I was such a believer that
when I had a, I think our 30th
wedding anniversary I--
I told my husband
who'd just been diagnosed,
- I said, "I know, let's walk
the South West coastal."
- (LAUGHTER)
And I was completely
bought into it.
I just lapped it up
like so many other people.
'Cause you weren't looking.
You weren't looking
to check untruth in it.
Actually, when you
pick up a book,
a memoir, and don't see it
coming from there,
so you open your heart to it
in a way you might not
in other areas of your life.
When I started,
I'd never read The Salt Path.
And you know, now,
it's consuming all my time
but I never got to read it
like the average reader.
I always read it
with a suspicious mind
and to my eye, there were
obvious red flags in it.
And I just had so many questions
about the publisher.
Couldn't they see
what I was seeing?
Didn't they ever
have any suspicions?
I tried to get someone from
Penguin to engage with me
for weeks
but didn't have any luck
but eventually I did find
a former employee of Penguin,
Amelia Fairney,
to talk to me.
She worked for them
for almost two decades
and she was at Penguin
when The Salt Path was
published.
- Hi.
- AMELIA: How are you?
HADJIMATHEOU:
Really good to meet you.
AMELIA:
Yeah, nice to meet you too.
Oh, this is
the memoir section.
I can see The Salt Path
down here.
She's got this
and The Wild Silence
and a third book, Landlines.
There's a fourth book.
I'm not sure
on the publication date
for that book.
- It was in October.
- Was it? Right.
Penguin announced it's delayed
because of the revelations.
Do you think they still have
aspirations to put that out?
I'm sure they do.
- Really?
- Yes.
- 100 percent.
- Despite the revelations?
Well, once
your investigation
came out,
Salt Path went to the top
of the bestseller list.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Were you at Penguin
when The Salt Path
- was first published?
- AMELIA: Yeah.
I definitely remember the buzz
internally around the book.
The Salt Path has sold
more than two million books,
translated into 25 languages.
- Is that really huge?
- Yes. (LAUGHS)
Yes. You would consider
a book a huge hit
if it has sold 100,000 copies.
- Once you're
getting into millions...
- That's really massive.
I think post-pandemic
particularly,
I think a heart-warming story
of an illness
which is mediated
by contact with nature,
it really tapped
into something at the time
and proved a huge hit.
Were you surprised
when my investigation
was published?
No. I wasn't surprised.
Book publishing
has a slightly
genteel image,
but it is a very
cut-throat competitive
commercial industry.
There is a pressure
to publish a lot and fast.
When you've got
a phenomenon book
like The Salt Path,
I can see why you would
just want to get
those books out there
as quickly as possible.
It's very difficult
to be a lone voice
saying, "You know,
actually I think some
of these medical claims
are overblown
in this manuscript by our
multimillion copy selling
star author."
You know,
that's really difficult.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What were the fact checking
processes for memoirs
when you were at Penguin?
AMELIA: Well, there isn't
a formal fact checking
process.
The author's contract states
they will deliver a manuscript
that is factually correct.
- Essentially on trust.
- Absolutely.
The onus is on the author.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Would Raynor Winn have signed
a contract
saying she was
legally responsible
for the truth
- of these memoirs?
- Yeah, that would be
in the contract.
REPORTER: We spoke
to Raynor and asked her
why she felt her story
connected with
so many people.
I think The Salt Path
had such a universal, um...
theme to it, really.
The question of what we do
when everything falls apart,
when life really
hits the wall,
how do we stand up?
How to go forward?
And that's a shared
human question
and brings up
many shared
human emotions.
WOMAN: Being out in nature
and how it can redeem and
make you feel better,
I think that is true.
I think anybody
going through
difficult times,
it gives you hope
you can do something
to make life better for you.
Walking and trekking,
that's my way of dealing with
quite difficult
things in my life
and I'm thankful for that.
So I really did feel
that I got it.
When they were
nearly blown away
by wind and sea,
I've been there,
I've done it.
So for me, it was great.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Raynor Winn's response
to my investigation was,
"Yes, well, this is our truth.
It's mine and Moth's truth,
Where is the harm?
Does it matter?"
A memoir is always
gonna present
a partial version
of events because it's
a subjective narrative,
but what gave these
books power was the fact
it was a true story.
People related to them,
to the real people,
so I don't think it would've
carried quite as much force
as a novel.
If you're publishing
something as a true story
then you are deceiving
your audience
if it's later found
not to be true.
I think that people
do trust books.
If something is printed
in between bound covers,
I think the general public
does still trust those words.
And I personally think
it would be a huge shame
to jeopardize that.
So realistically, what changes
could Penguin implement?
I do think that publishing needs
to take a look in the mirror
and if that means that it takes
a bit longer to publish a book
or an editor needs to be working
on fewer books at a time,
surely, it's worth it.
But there's no incentive
for them to change anything.
Your investigation
actually sent The Salt Path
back to the top of
the bestseller charts.
So in terms
of the publisher's
bottom line...
- I helped?
- Yeah.
- MAN 1: And a little
smile please. (LAUGHS)
- MAN 2: Thank you.
REPORTER:
What are you most proud of
about the film?
I feel like it faithfully
represents the book.
I really feel like,
collectively,
we got it right.
REPORTER:
What has life been like
since you wrote that book?
Oh, it's just
changed and grown
in different ways
that I would never
have expected.
HADJIMATHEOU: What's really
crazy about this investigation
is that,
each time
I pull on a thread,
it seems astounding.
A new angle was
coming together,
one that involved
people closest
to Raynor and Moth,
or Sally and Tim, and their
desire to see the truth
become public.
I hadn't tried to reach out
to their families.
I'd assumed that if I did,
I couldn't have imagined
they'd speak to me.
Members of Moth's family
came forward.
And I spoke to them.
It was clear there was
a massive rift in the families.
Both sides were
suffering deep hurt over
Sally and Tim's actions.
Eventually,
I traced Sally Walker's niece.
She told me
that she had
a confession letter
and this seemed to be
written by Sally Walker,
confessing to a series
of thefts.
I said, if you give me
permission I'd like
to share this
with Tim's family who I've been
speaking to for months,
and who I think,
given what's in this letter
might be prepared
to come forward,
so you wouldn't
be doing it alone,
and she agreed.
So I'm pretty nervous today
because finally,
they've said that they are
willing to come to London
and meet me,
but they're very, very nervous.
Everyone is very, very nervous.
These family members
haven't seen each other
in decades.
- Hello, guys.
- WOMAN 1: Hello.
- WOMAN 2: Hello.
- MAN: Hi.
- WOMAN 2: Can I hug you?
- WOMAN 1: Yes.
- So nice to meet you.
- Yeah. Nice to--
We've changed
their names and with
the exception of "Cecille",
they all asked to keep
their identities private.
- I don't remember you at all.
- MAN: It's a long time ago.
I don't know quite
what's happened to time.
- And I don't know
who to expect--
- Oh, same here. Yeah, yeah.
WOMAN:
Do you wanna grab a seat?
HADJIMATHEOU: The woman
we're calling "Fiona'"
is another of Tim's relatives.
And "Anne" is Sally's niece.
She's brought the letters.
What was it like for you reading
that article for the first time?
Well, for me,
I called my sister,
and I called her and I said,
"Oh, my God,
it's finally happening.
Someone knows."
Anne, you've brought
these letters to show
to Cecille and Fiona.
Can you tell me about them?
ANNE: So I've got
confession letters here.
Letters with Sally
confessing to stealing on top
of the Ros Hemmings,
where she openly admits to
stealing from my grandparents
and Tim's parents.
We have Sally basically saying,
"This is why I took the money.
Why I took the money
from your grandparents."
My grandmother
put them in a box
and gave them to Mum.
I was told where they were,
to keep them
because one day
I might need them.
I just can't believe
the evidence exists
for what she did.
"Please don't look any further
for the money.
I've taken all of it."
"The figures the bank
are giving you are correct."
"Any statements she had over
the last 18 months are fake.
I forged them."
"I ask you not to take things
further with the bank
but to tell them
it was a mistake."
"I have to ask
as I have a police record
and should this go further
I'll go to prison this time."
ANNE: She left my grandmother
no money,
forged bank statements.
It broke her
to the very core.
The daughter
who she idolized
and put on a pedestal
broke her.
"I can attempt
to explain the why."
"Tim invested half our capital
and lost all the money."
"As he became more depressed,
I became desperate
to hold him out of it
to keep some of
the real Tim alive."
"I took the money
and paid bills with it."
"If you'd asked me how much
I'd taken, I'd have said
maybe 10,000.
So when I was arrested
for the theft of 67,000,
I was stunned."
"During this time
in a mad panic,
I transferred 25,000
from Tim's Mum and Dad's
account to Tim's."
HADJIMATHEOU:
So after taking the 67,000
from Martin Hemmings,
she stole from her mother,
and she took thousands of pounds
from Tim's parents as well.
FIONA: Thousands, yeah.
Thousands.
WOMAN: It's very hard
to put a figure on these things
because they didn't
want to talk about it.
ANNE:
Nobody will ever say.
HADJIMATHEOU:
I mean, in that email,
she's categorically stating
- that she took
from both families.
- WOMAN: Yeah.
It's remarkable to see
a confession with it
written in.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What was it like in your family
when you were young?
FIONA: We're fairly close.
We used to love going to Wales.
- This is the Wales house.
Penymaes.
- The Wales house.
Tim and Sally's house was--
it was like a meeting place,
I suppose.
We used to see them
quite often.
CECILLE: I have very fond
childhood memories.
ANNE: Yeah.
They'd turn up and you're in
for some excitement.
They were
the fun uncle and auntie.
Always try to make you laugh.
Trying to do fun things.
FIONA: Especially Tim, I think.
CECILLE: Tim, he's got
this character.
ANNE:
Sally was desperately
in love with Tim.
That desperation to do
everything she can
to give Tim what he'd like.
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.
ANNE: But I think they have
this symbiotic relationship.
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Was Tim fully aware
of the finances
and what Sally was up to?
CECILLE: Tim's a character
where you don't know
what you can believe.
ANNE: He's a character
that as a child,
we would have all
found really exciting.
But as an adult
lacking total responsibility
and any connection
to reality.
FIONA:
My husband calls him
a fantasist.
When did you hear about
corticobasal degeneration?
Oh, we never
gave it serious
consideration.
I took what Tim said
with a pinch of salt.
FIONA: Put it this way.
We never worried
that he was ill.
I mean, that's awful to say
but he always made out
he was ill.
HADJIMATHEOU:
You didn't believe
much of the book then?
FIONA: Hundred percent. No.
CECILLE:
I read the first chapter.
She's making herself out
to be this victim
who'd been so hard done by
and I was so angry,
I threw the book
across the room.
ANNE:
If that was sold as fiction,
different kettle of fish.
A memoir. (SCOFFS)
And it's just a lie.
It's not fair. It's not right.
It's really not right.
And it hurt.
It hurt deeply.
It was a very strange time
to see her
rise up to be this--
so famous.
Interviews and videos
like the one
where she's on a sofa,
talking to Jason Isaacs.
Made me so angry.
He's very extroverted.
It's like meeting a tall,
slim Father Christmas.
And then
there's that video
of Tim and...
Oh, it's embarrassing.
- He sent us this message.
- What?
Jason, I just wanted to say,
what a pleasure it has been
meeting you
and an absolute honor
to see you portray me.
(CHUCKLES)
And he's like, "I never get
to portray nice people."
He says that,
but they're not nice people.
It's like a story,
you couldn't make that up.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
Our journey had drained us
of every emotion,
sapped our strength
and our will.
But then,
like windblown trees
along our route,
we had been reformed
by the elements
into a new shape that could
ride out whatever storms
came over
the bright new sea.
SABERTON:
We're all looking, aren't we,
for a happy ending?
When you close The Salt Path
and the other two books,
your heart is still
with Ray and Moth.
You always wonder,
how are they doing?
Is he okay?
Let's look at Instagram.
How are they getting on?
And when we find out
that we've been
mis-sold something,
we start to question
who's telling us the truth?
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU: It's about
six months now I've been
working on The Salt Path.
I was supposed to be
doing an investigation
in Syria.
I thought this was gonna be
a detour for a few weeks,
I had no idea that this story
was gonna go on and on.
I think there's a public
interest in setting
the record straight
and the important thing is,
when people have a clearer
picture of the facts,
they can make up
their own minds.
CECILLE: Because of
one person's actions,
so many people were affected.
- ANNE: They don't care
who they hurt.
- They don't care.
ANNE: She never
come back and gone,
"I'm really sorry I stole
half of all of this off Mum
and you had to help support
grandma and everything else.
I'm really sorry."
Like I presume
they've never
come back to you.
FIONA:
They don't say sorry.
- It's not just about money...
- ANNE: It's about,
- "I'm sorry.
I accept what I've done."
- Yeah.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Families are complicated
and it is hard to know
all that's gone on here.
If she really did take it,
she's worth millions now.
She could've paid
back both families
and said, "I did this
terrible thing. I don't know
where I was.
I was in
a really dark place."
What really made
an impression on me
was the fact
all this time Raynor Winn
was seen as a sort of a victim
and a vulnerable person
that people had
opened their hearts to.
It must have been hard
for family members
to watch all of that,
feeling the resentment
and hurt
they did towards her.
I wonder
what life has been like
for them carrying these
really dark secrets
for all of these years?
SABERTON:
Tim can't enjoy the spoils of
their fortunes there.
He can't enjoy
what they've earned.
If he's getting better
or he's well,
he has to not be seen.
'Cause people
will be looking.
I wonder if
she believes it now.
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
When you tell a story,
the first person
you must convince
is yourself.
If you can make yourself
believe it's true,
then everyone else
will follow.
NARRATOR:
We contacted Penguin,
the publisher of The Salt Path,
but they didn't respond.
Raynor Winn and Moth,
Sally and Tim Walker,
declined to provide
a response for the film.
In a statement published
at the time of The Observer's
first investigation,
Raynor Winn said,
"The Salt Path is about
what happened to Moth and me
after we lost our home
and found ourselves
homeless."
We're accused
of hiding behind
pseudonyms,
like most, we use these
nicknames, alongside
our real names.
The dispute
with Martin Hemmings
is not the court
case in The Salt Path.
Mr. Hemmings made an allegation
against me to the police,
accusing me
of taking money."
I was not charged.
I reached a settlement
because I did not have
the evidence required
to support what had happened.
I charted Moth's condition
with such a level of honesty.
I never sought to offer
medical advice in my books.
Or suggest that walking
might be some sort
of miracle for CBS.
The effect of the suggestion
that Moth made up
this condition
has been absolutely
traumatizing for him.
Raynor Winn denies
any thefts from the family
or writing the letter
and challenges
the families' recollections.
(WAVES LAPPING)
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
NEWS ANCHOR:
We spoke to Raynor
and asked her why she felt
her story connected
with so many people.
RAYNOR: It's that
question of what we do
when everything falls apart,
when life really
hits the wall,
How do we stand up again?
How do we go forward?
I think The Salt Path
had such a universal, um...
theme to it, really,
and brings up so many of those
shared human emotions.
PRESENTER 1:
On the programme tonight,
The Salt Path.
PRESENTER 2: The Salt Path.
PRESENTER 3:
It's one of the best-selling
non-fiction paperbacks.
Yes, Raynor Winn
and her husband Moth
lost their home,
their business, and learnt Moth
was terminally ill
all in the space
of a few days.
The Salt Path tells the story
of how walking the coast
gave them new hope.
PRESENTER:
Now that memorable story
of one couple's epic trek
along the South West coastal
path has been turned into
a film.
(PEOPLE CALL OUT)
WOMAN: Gillian!
HOST: What's it like
seeing Gillian Anderson
and Jason Isaacs
portraying your story?
- Well, even now,
it's not quite real.
- (BOTH LAUGH)
REPORTER:
A woman who, in the same week,
had her home repossessed
and discovered her
husband had received
a terminal diagnosis.
What do you do?
They walked away, literally.
Setting out with a tent
and small change.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
TOM:
The newspaper investigation
has revealed questions
over the truth
behind The Salt Path.
An Observer investigation
suggesting she misrepresented
how they lost their home
and casting doubt
on his illness
has left many
feeling betrayed.
REPORTER: "Unflinchingly
honest" was the phrase
used by the publishers
but a story broken
by Chloe Hadjimatheou
in The Observer,
now, questions
have been raised.
Raynor Winn herself
has fiercely defended
the veracity of her book.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I think what's crazy
about this,
is that each time
I turn a corner with it,
I notice another thread
dangling.
I pull and there's
something bigger.
There just seems to be
more and more revelations.
RAYNOR'S NIECE:
My best friend did it
in her book club,
and I went,
"That's my aunt!"
- Everywhere you turned,
it was there.
- Yeah.
What was it like for you guys
when my first article
was published?
I called my sister.
I called her and said,
"Oh, my God,
it's finally happening.
Someone knows."
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
(SEAGULLS SQUAWK)
It's there now.
My name's Chloe Hadjimatheou.
I'm an investigative journalist
for The Observer newspaper.
Back in March this year,
a member of the public
got in touch with me
with a tip-off.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
I was actually in the middle
of planning a trip to Syria
to do an investigation
and suddenly this message
just popped up
on my social media.
(DINGING)
It was a complete stranger
who said they had
a story for me
that I might want to look into
and it was about a book
called The Salt Path.
When you get a source,
like a tip-off,
I mean,
my first instinct
is not to trust it.
And at the time,
I had absolutely no idea
what this book
The Salt Path was,
and never heard
of its author Raynor Winn.
Being honest,
just didn't understand what
the big deal was.
Definitely a favorite
is The Salt Path
by Raynor Winn.
It was visually captivating.
In my top five books.
Read the book.
It tells the story of how Raynor
and her husband Moth Winn...
Lost their money
and had their
house repossessed.
And they hike,
live rough
along the coastline.
Discovered Moth had
terminal illness.
Terminal diagnosis and they
decided to just up sticks
and go walking
the English coast.
Life can't get much worse,
can it?
HADJIMATHEOU: Readers loved it
and the book sold more than
two million copies,
but they fell in love
with a story they were told
was real.
And I was about to uncover
something very different.
There are very, very few stories
that actually pan out
and turn into something big.
So when I replied,
I had no idea that
this message would end up
leading to one of
the biggest scoops
of my journalistic career.
The first thing
this person said to me was,
the author of this "true story"
had been making things up.
And they had pieces
of key information for me.
The first was
their real names.
They're not really
Raynor Winn and Moth,
legal names are
Sally and Tim Walker.
They also told me
the name of the village
where they had started out
in Wales, where they'd
lost their house.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
None of this is public.
And, I have to say,
journalistically,
my instinct is,
if your real name
isn't out there,
what are you hiding?
That's the first thing
that made me think maybe
there's something in this.
First thing I did
was go out and buy myself
a copy of The Salt Path
and read the book.
(SOULFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: In the courtroom,
I watched as Moth picked
at a white fleck
on the black table
in front of him.
He'd been close friends
with the man
who was making
the financial claim
against us.
I knew what he was thinking.
"How had it come to this?"
HADJIMATHEOU: So The Salt Path
opens, uh, on this really
quite tragic scene.
Raynor and Moth have just
found out that they're
losing their house
after somebody
they considered a friend
essentially conned them
out of it.
(SOULFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)
My anonymous source told me
there were these rumors
about a story in Pwllheli,
North Wales,
the town where
Raynor and Moth
had lived for years
before becoming destitute.
After I hung out
in local pubs for a day,
I ended up getting
a contact for the widow
of a man called Martin
- who ran a local estate agency
on the high street.
- (LINE RINGS)
Her name was Ros,
and she was really
the first key person
that I spoke to in
this investigation.
I said to her,
"This is going to
seem a bit weird,
an investigative journalist
from London calling you."
If I'm honest, a big part of me
thought she would say
this was rubbish,
- there was no truth
to the rumors...
- (LINE RINGS)
and Sally Walker was a lovely
person and there was nothing
more to the story.
It was shocking
to hear her tone of voice
because it was clear
she's waiting
for somebody to call.
- ROS: (OVER PHONE) Yes?
- Hello. I'm the journalist
from London
- trying to reach you.
- Yes.
I am currently investigating
a couple who used to live
in Pwllheli.
ROS: I thought you might be.
Their names have changed,
haven't they?
- HADJIMATHEOU:
Yes, they have. Yes.
- ROS: Yes.
What did you think
when you heard a journalist
from the Observer,
- looking for you?
- I thought,
"I think I know what this
is about, because the film
had come out."
HADJIMATHEOU:
How did you know Tim
and Sally Walker?
ROS: I knew Tim Walker first.
I worked for the National Trust
and he was the gardener there.
He was always
extremely well-dressed.
A man always with a cravat.
- Did you like him?
- Yes, he was pleasant.
Very pleasant.
And I think Sally
started working for Martin
in 2001.
- HADJIMATHEOU: What was
Sally like?
- ROS: Very quiet.
Never really said anything.
- Did Martin like her?
- Yes.
Seemed to get on with her.
But Martin generally
liked most people.
He was very kind
and generous.
Never wanted
to let anybody down.
He was doing
structural surveys
for house buyers.
He was drawing plans
for people to the point
where he had so many jobs
that one of his other staff
would just stick them up
in lists down the wall
and go, "Have you
done that, Martin?"
You must have been
doing very well
if he was that busy--
We should have been
and that was the problem,
we weren't.
We had no money
for years and years
and years.
And the first we really knew
something was wrong
was in 2008.
Martin said, "I gave Sally
the cash to go and pay in,
otherwise we would not be
able to pay the wages."
And he said,
"The cash didn't go
into the bank."
Martin started
looking backwards
through every cheque
with the bank manager,
he said, "That's not
my signature.
That's not my signature."
That's the point she said,
"I will ring the police."
Martin and I
took the books home
for the whole time
she'd worked for us
and started
working backwards.
It took months.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In the end, how much
was missing altogether?
We felt there was 64,000.
Had she been
stealing for years?
She had, yes.
- What did you do?
- Oh, we told the police.
- What did they say?
- They said,
"We'll arrest her."
- They took her into custody?
- They did.
And...
All she said
was "no comment"
all day.
And as she was not considered
a danger to the community,
we let her go home
on the understanding she'd
come back the next morning.
And he said, "It's a bit
embarrassing we've lost her."
(LINE RINGING)
- WOMAN: Hello.
- Hi, how are you?
Hi, Chloe.
HADJIMATHEOU: Ros gave me
the number of one of Martin's
former employees
who she says can corroborate
what she's told me.
Tell me what it was like
working for Martin.
Did Sally fit into the office
quite easily?
Was she quickly
one of the team?
WOMAN: They, as a family
kept very much to themselves,
but she would just pass
pleasantries.
She talked about her family,
her children, mainly,
you know, and everything
costing so much
and no money to do this,
that or the other.
When was the first inkling
that something was wrong
with the finances
at the office?
Did-- Was there
any kind of, um, clue
before Martin found out?
The one occasion
I can remember
was when
the accountants phoned
and they wanted
to speak to Martin about
the new engine on his van.
And then Sally saw the message
and just, and she, said,
"I know what that's about,
I'll deal with that."
And so... And so Martin
didn't have a new engine
in his van then?
No, that was just
a made-up invoice.
Oh, wow.
WOMAN: And she came in
one day and said,
"Guess what
I did last night."
she said, "We've gone
and bought a house in France."
HADJIMATHEOU: Wow.
WOMAN:
Both Martin and myself
were thinking,
"Wow, that's
very nice for you."
(CHUCKLES)
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
RAYNOR: Moth and I met
when we were teenagers,
when we were 30-ish,
found an idyllic little ruin
in the hills of Wales
that we spent 20 years
restoring.
Our children grew up there,
kept sheep, grew vegetables,
that's our life,
but in the background,
we had a financial dispute
with a lifetime friend
that ended in a court case.
Saw us being served
an eviction notice
from our home.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
ROS: Somebody,
several years later,
I think it was ex-office staff,
were given the book.
And they said
they'd read it
and that Sally said
she'd lost all her money
in a business deal.
And it made me so cross.
I thought why can't she just say
she'd done this terrible thing,
stolen the money,
lost her house,
why doesn't she just...
Be honest?
HADJIMATHEOU:
So, what happened
after Sally went missing?
ROS:
The next thing we heard,
our solicitor said
that an unnamed client
wanted to pay back
everything she owed Martin
on the understanding
that he would sign
an agreement
that he wouldn't
disclose this.
Martin signed this agreement?
He signed it, I didn't.
It's nothing to do with me.
- You got the money back.
- Yeah.
As part of the deal,
Martin had to agree
- never to talk about it again.
- He did, yes.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What I'm interested in is,
why the police decided
not to pursue the case
anyway?
ROS: What I gathered
from the Detective Constable
who dealt with us,
it's not really worth it.
They'll probably just tell her
off and give her a bit of
community service.
You've got the money back,
go away and enjoy it.
Just soul destroying,
and for Martin
it was soul destroying.
Four years later, he died.
Poor Martin. It's awful.
NARRATOR:
I will proceed to judgement.
I'll give possession
to claimant.
You will have vacated
the property in seven days.
And now we had lost it all,
penniless, homeless.
HADJIMATHEOU:
There's this moment
when a story comes your way
when you realize,
there is a mystery
to be unpicked
and it's
incredibly exciting.
Raynor Winn,
famous international author,
had been accused of stealing
tens of thousands of pounds
from Ros's husband, Martin.
But I had more work to do
to understand
how all this related
to the story Raynor
was telling in her memoir
and repeating
in countless interviews.
ALEX: For anybody
who doesn't
know the story,
can you explain
why yourself and
your husband
embarked on this journey,
this walk?
My husband Moth and I,
we'd had a...
financial dispute
with a lifetime friend
- that ended in--
- JASON: They got conned.
You can't say it but I can,
you got conned.
Anyway, we ended
in a court case.
That saw us being evicted
from our home.
HADJIMATHEOU: I wanted
to find out exactly why
Raynor and Moth were evicted
and forced to leave Wales.
And a logical starting point
was their house in Pwllheli.
This is where they lived
for two decades,
where they raised their children
and which they eventually lost.
(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
We stood at the front door,
the bailiffs on the other side
waiting to change the locks,
to bar us
from our old lives.
We were about to leave
the dimly lit,
centuries old house that
had held us cocooned
for 20 years.
It was our home,
our business,
our sanctuary.
So l didn't
expect it to end.
MAXINE: Watch your head
as you come in.
That's it.
HADJIMATHEOU:
So this must be the barn
they spent ages renovating.
MAXINE: Yes.
That's right, yeah.
It had been empty
for three and a half,
four years
before I bought it
from the bank.
I was up in the corner
and I saw what I thought
was rough plaster.
When I looked closer,
I found an inscription.
- Can I have a look, where?
- Just in the corner here.
- Yeah.
- I can make it out...
- MAXINE: Just tucked away.
- "Tim heart Sal.
Kiss, kiss, kiss."
- There's a date.
- Yeah.
I think it says 2007.
HADJIMATHEOU:
When I was coming in,
I spoke to one
of your neighbors.
They told me the Walkers fled
in the middle of the night.
MAXINE:
I'd heard that.
HADJIMATHEOU: When the bailiffs
came in the morning,
the property was empty.
They'd ripped everything out
and gone.
MAXINE:
All of a sudden,
there were vans
coming and going,
and next day,
they'd disappeared.
NARRATOR: The men in black
began hammering
at the door at 9:00 a.m.
but we weren't ready.
The bailiffs moved to the back,
banging on the windows,
trying all the catches,
looking for a way in.
Hiding under the stairs
had seemed a good option.
HADJIMATHEOU: So you moved
in here years after
the Walkers had left.
But you're still
getting letters for them.
MAXINE: Yeah, yeah.
From day one, you know.
Nearly every day
something was coming
or every week I should say,
and they were,
um, from solicitors,
from bailiffs,
and it just
went on and on.
HADJIMATHEOU:
They owed a lot of money.
MAXINE:
I presume so, yeah.
The bailiffs were coming.
It was a bit scary.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What did people locally
think of them?
Did they have
a good reputation?
I never heard
anything positive.
People like to gossip,
don't they? And they
probably like to gossip
on the negative stuff
more than the positive stuff.
But curiously,
I was just thinking recently,
I never met anyone
who said they
were their friends.
Which is a bit curious
for a couple who'd
lived here for a long time.
NARRATOR: We'd lost.
Lost the case.
Lost the house.
And lost ourselves.
It was then
I spotted a book
in a packing box.
I'd read 500 Mile Walkies
in my 20s.
The story of a man who walked
the South West Coast path
with his dog.
"We could just walk."
It was ridiculous to say
but I said it anyway.
"Walk?'"
"Yeah, just walk'"
Could Moth walk it?
HADJIMATHEOU:
Sally and Tim did have
their house repossessed.
But I still didn't know
how it was linked
to the money
Sally had used to pay back
Ros's husband, Martin.
I needed more evidence,
I needed to dig, I needed
to find legal documents.
When I went
to the Land Registry,
I got this letter
saying the property
was repossessed by somebody
who had lent this couple
more than 100,000
with their house
as collateral for that loan.
After some digging,
I discovered that the lender
was a relative of Tim Walker
and that he'd passed away
in 2015.
It took me a long time
but I managed to trace
his ex-wife.
She wanted
to remain anonymous,
but she remembered
that one day in 2010,
Sally had turned up
out of the blue to speak
to her husband.
REBECCA: He told me
she was on the run
from the police.
He said,
"No member of my family
is going to prison."
HADJIMATHEOU:
This woman,
I'm calling her Rebecca,
she told me that her husband
lent her 100,000.
This was the money Sally used
to pay back Martin Hemmings.
A family loan
had come to her rescue,
but later, when Tim's
relative got into
financial trouble himself,
he transferred the debt
to people he owed money to.
And they called it in.
Sally and Tim couldn't pay,
and that's how they
lost their house.
It was like
a curtain being pulled.
Suddenly, you get
this view of a story
that is so different.
Raynor Winn looked like
a totally different person
suddenly.
She had taken
real aspects of her story
and recast them
in a very different light.
And maybe we all do this
to some extent.
But when you market a memoir
as "unflinchingly honest"
and you're prepared
to go on the sofa
on The One Show
and say,
"This is the truth."
I think there is
a public interest
in telling the reality
is very, very different.
RAYNOR:
We ended in a court case.
That saw us being evicted from
our home.
They gave us
a few days to move out.
And in that week,
uh, Moth had what we thought
was just a routine hospital
appointment
but it turned out
to be anything but.
He was diagnosed with a--
a neurodegenerative condition.
HADJIMATHEOU:
The start of The Salt Path
tells us the story
of Moth and Raynor losing
their house,
but what makes it so dramatic
is the very same week,
Moth also gets
a terminal diagnosis.
I now knew the story
behind their eviction
wasn't true,
but the anonymous tip-off
that started my investigation
raised another question
about Moth's health.
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
JASON: Told to go home.
RAYNOR: Yeah.
Get ready to say goodbye,
avoid the stairs.
They did say.
That was the only advice
they could give,
don't get too tired.
Be careful on the stairs.
So we walked 630 miles.
- (ALL LAUGH)
- Instead.
NARRATOR:
I don't think I can bear
to stay around here.
I need to put some space
between Wales and us.
It's too painful to stay.
I took a deep breath,
"Let's pack
the rucksacks then,
and make it up
as we go along."
"South West Coast path
it is then."
(PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I read about CBD,
I spoke to some experts
and learnt that it was
a rare degenerative disease.
Patients suffering
with this condition,
uh, would very rapidly lose
the use of their limbs.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
It made me want
to understand more
about the walk
that had apparently
healed Moth.
So I set off
to retrace their steps.
One of the first people
Raynor and Moth meet
is in Glastonbury,
where they stop off
near the start of the path.
(CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: Look at this,
I'd spotted the poster
all over town.
Healing with angels
at heavenly end.
3 each. Shall we go?
Just for the Glastonbury
experience
and what if
it wasn't just hokum,
what if it could help him?
(CHORAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
- Okay, so we'd start
with a candle.
- (HANG PLAYING)
And then just gently
set fire to the sage
and have a big...
HADJIMATHEOU:
I was curious to see
what Michelle,
real name Daisy Foss,
remembered about them.
NARRATOR: Michelle set
her stage to the tune
of South American pipes
and whale calls,
lighting a burner that filled
the room with
"breath of heaven" smoke.
I know what we called it
in college
and it wasn't
"breath of heaven."
(HANG CONTINUES PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
Can you remember
when Raynor Winn and Moth
came to one
of your sessions?
I do remember them.
I've gone over the evening
and I close my eyes.
I can see them
in front of me.
They're lying
next to each other.
Her description
of the entire
sort of session,
there's an insinuation
there is kind of marijuana
being pumped into the room.
Was there any marijuana,
- were people
smoking it in there--
- Absolutely not, no.
Hundred percent, not.
What she would smell
was the sage.
In the book,
in her description
of the session,
it sounds like Moth finds it
very difficult to get up
and it has
a sort of bad effect
on him, physically.
NARRATOR:
Moth carried on snoring.
I prodded him awake,
"Moth, get up."
"I can't."
"I know you're comfy
but just get up now."
"No, I can't.
I can't move."
"Fuck, do you
think this is it?"
"Am I paralyzed?
I can't move."
If somebody
was really poorly,
I'd give extra
hands-on healing.
So I'm not sure
if I did that to Moth.
But I-- that's what
I would've done
if somebody was
in great pain.
I don't remember him
being in great pain.
I remember him
being very deep
in relaxation.
That's where
the snoring came from.
HADJIMATHEOU: Raynor writes
that it takes two weeks
of sleeping at a friend's
for Moth's pain and sickness
to wear off.
They then get the bus
to Minehead, in Somerset
to start the walk,
as seen in this
revealing interview.
RAYNOR: I was 50.
My husband was
a little older.
He was struggling
to put his coat on
without help.
And just to get the rucksack
onto his back was hard work
because I had to lift it up for
him to put his arms through.
So--
It wasn't possibly the most
responsible thing that we
could've chosen to do.
NARRATOR: It would mean
climbing the equivalent
of Mount Everest
nearly four times.
Walking 630 miles on a path
often no more than a foot wide.
Sleeping wild, living wild.
HADJIMATHEOU:
So Raynor and Moth
are doing this on tiny budget,
less than 50 a week
and they're surviving
on a really low calorie intake,
just essentially super noodles.
It's the last thing
you wanna do
on a walk like this
especially if
physically unwell.
There's this moment
where they cross over from
Devon into Cornwall.
It's a hot day,
they're on a beach.
They're thirsty and they bump
into a guy called Grant
who buys them
some ice creams.
There you go.
20, 21...
My round.
- Oh, right.
- Hey.
Hi. Thanks.
HADJIMATHEOU: I'd been
desperately trying to find out
who the real Grant was,
and all of a sudden,
I get an email from
a guy called Warren
who said he'd read my article
and he wanted to talk.
- Hi. How you doing?
- Hello.
- HADJIMATHEOU:
So nice to finally meet you.
- You too. Hello.
I don't know, is it,
"Hi, Grant" or "Hi, Warren"?
So anyway, the book,
look I've brought my copy.
I read your article and thought,
"That's those people we met."
I remember talking
how they'd lost their house.
They got done in
on a business deal.
We drove back in my van.
And they came in
and they had lasagna.
NARRATOR:
We sat in the back of Grant's
sleek 4x4.
"We've got a huge lasagna,
so plenty of food."
All we heard was lasagna
and beer.
Suddenly our legs
weren't so tired.
WARREN:
They stayed in the orchard
then had bacon sandwiches
in the morning
and off they went.
It strikes me
you took in these two people
who you could see were tired,
were having a hard time of it.
But in the book it makes it
sound like you're
quite a superficial,
- very sort of well-off--
- That's an understatement.
It's not nice.
Not kind.
It's this description of these
three extremely sexy women
who sort of surround Moth
and flutter around him
and take him to another room
and massaging him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Where's the pain?
- I'm a masseuse.
- Oh. Right.
- It's everywhere.
- Let her give you a massage.
Grant's got back issues.
- Give him a message.
- Want one?
Deep tissue,
it's quite intense.
Um...
Crikey, I'll have
to shower first.
The girls can sort you out.
WARREN:
He never had a massage.
Certainly our autistic son's
childminder was not gonna go
and massage
somebody else's feet.
No way.
And the other thing that really
sort of struck me is that...
You and the women
in your household
all mistook Moth
for Simon Armitage.
- Yeah.
- The poet.
And the insinuation is that,
that's the only reason
- you invited him back.
- I know.
We never thought he was a poet.
We don't know who they were
alluding to.
This idea someone
being massaged
because they're a famous poet,
what a bunch of crap, you know.
So the year that
she came is correct.
The lasagna is correct.
Yeah, but apart from that,
not many true bits
in her story. (CHUCKLES)
There's lasagna here.
HADJIMATHEOU: When Raynor
and Moth meet Grant, they're
going through a hard time.
And he's extremely kind
and generous towards them.
- Mm. It's so good.
- WARREN: It is, isn't it?
HADJIMATHEOU:
If you were walking
for days and days
eating super noodles and you
suddenly sat down and had
this...
WARREN: It'd be nice.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Grant reveals his own
life story and hardships,
but none of that
is acknowledged
by Raynor Winn in the book.
She really has
a divisive us
and them attitude
in which really her and Moth are
the only victims in the book.
This isn't just Grant.
It's with lots
of the characters
she meets along
the Salt Path.
The readers
didn't know any of that
and they opened their hearts
to Raynor and Moth
and felt very sorry for them
and the book really
resonated with them.
When I published
my investigation,
I got a number of readers
contacting me.
Most of them were furious
that they'd been duped
by the book.
I did also have people
contacting me
who were angry with me
and they felt I'd been
unfair to Raynor and Moth
and they just didn't get
why I bothered with
this investigating,
but I guess
there is, uh, sort of innate
stubbornness in me.
I don't let things go.
And if I am persuaded
there is something there
to be discovered,
I will keep going with it.
So after The Salt Path
was published,
Raynor Winn was offered
a multi-book deal.
The couple moved to Cornwall,
where she continued to write
about her and Moth's walks
across the UK.
MAN:
I've been here
since 1966.
Lived here all my life.
I don't have to walk too far
to the pub.
People are great.
It's a real nice
community feel.
We tend to get lots of walkers
doing the coast path.
Two, three, four, 50.
There you go.
- WOMAN: Ta now.
- Thank you.
I love it.
Lovely people around.
Quiet, nice little locals.
There's nowhere
quite like Cornwall.
You walk down,
everyone says "Morning."
Everyone's welcoming.
Thank you.
I'll give you
autograph later.
I'm living here
one and half
year now.
Nice, peaceful life.
Walk around,
it's beautiful people here.
Everybody, everybody.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In 2019, Raynor and Moth
moved to Hay Farm
which sits above the village
of Polruan
and it's where they lived
until 2022.
It was during this time that
she wrote both her second
book, The Wild Silence,
and her third book,
Landlines.
I tracked down
one of their neighbors
who's also an author.
I had high hopes that she'd had
a connection with Raynor Winn
and she might give me
more insight.
Hi.
All right, Squeaks.
Can we come in,
say hello?
Hello.
- Oh!
- (LAUGHS)
Lovely creatures.
- Was Raynor interested in
horses ever?
- Don't think she's horsey, no.
HADJIMATHEOU:
When's the first time
you met them?
SABERTON:
So I first met her
at an authors' event,
so in 2019, I met her
professionally.
Before I even lived here.
And then when
we bought this property,
that was when
the neighbor said to us,
"Well, my tenant,
your neighbor,
is Raynor Winn."
He said, "Obviously they're
really private people."
They've been
really hurt in the past.
And they, you know,
want to be left in peace.
I was really
respectful of that.
But I was excited
'cause it was
really nice to think
there might be
somebody nearby
to talk books to.
- HADJIMATHEOU:
What was she like?
- She was lovely.
I'd say she's very shy.
- Very nervous.
- Mmm.
SABERTON:
I put that down to the fact
I'd read the book by then.
That they'd had
such a torrid time.
Didn't want to let
anybody get close.
I really wanted to talk
about her journey
'cause in the world
of memoir writing,
she's a rock star.
But looking back,
she didn't want
to talk about it at all.
She doesn't open her,
herself to people.
But he does. Moth.
He's a very tall guy.
He's a handsome man.
Piercing eyes.
He had so much
presence.
He's warm and friendly
and talkative.
And a great raconteur.
He really did tell
some great stories.
NARRATOR: Moth spun a story
of golden summers
spent under canvas.
Of changing weather
unfolding around two people
living wild in nature.
The woman sat mesmerized
caught by his stories.
Spellbound as
people always are.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Did he seem unwell?
It's hard to say. You can't
really tell by looking,
but he always seemed full of
vitality and humor.
I didn't question it too much
'cause what sort of person
would you be if you start
questioning it.
HADJIMATHEOU: And then
what about when her book
Landlines came out?
Landlines is set
in the period
I knew them.
Right.
I was excited 'cause I thought
I'll recognize this story now
because this is
the place I live,
the farm I know,
the area that's my home.
And chapter one
is January 2021.
It's winter and it's bleak.
She's freezing cold.
She's struggling.
It was clear,
they weren't coping.
He was
deteriorating massively.
There was one awful bit
where he can't make it
to the bathroom.
I think the quote is like,
"We lay together
in a pool of pee."
And I read it and I,
I just, I started crying.
The more I read,
the worse I felt.
Because these were
my neighbors.
I thought they were
wanting to be brave.
I thought they didn't
want to let people in
because of the--
the friendships they'd had
where they're betrayed.
I felt bad for not realizing
what was going on.
But I was confused
because that situation
wasn't what I'd seen.
HADJIMATHEOU: You're seeing
him out and about
and seems okay.
He seems okay
but he's in nature,
isn't he?
The kind of secular miracle
of nature healing
so I've got this cognitive
dissonance between
what I'm seeing
and what I'm reading.
And I'm trying to equate it
in my heart and my head.
And it's-- I can't.
I went through each book.
I started to make copious notes
about what made sense
and what didn't.
And suddenly, all these
things that I'd just read
and just accepted,
when I looked at
with a more objective
and maybe
a cooler critical eye
just didn't make sense.
I'd suspended
my critical mind
and allowed myself
to fall headlong in love
with this beautiful story.
HADJIMATHEOU:
During my investigation
I was speaking to readers
of The Salt Path,
many of whom told me
they were incredibly moved
by Moth's battle
with his illness,
corticobasal degeneration.
At the start of the book,
he's struggling to get
his rucksack on
and just over a month later,
he's made this really quite
remarkable recovery
and there's a scene
where a fast, incoming tide
is threatening their tent
and he comes physically
to the rescue.
Leave the bloody tent.
I'm not leaving it.
It's our home.
(GRUNTS)
HADJIMATHEOU:
It was this moving moment
in the film as well.
Oh! Look at you.
How you can move.
Come on.
It's amazing. Ah!
(GRUNTS TRIUMPHANTLY)
(YELLING)
(SOBBING)
NARRATOR:
He'd changed.
There was no question.
He'd changed.
I'm stronger. I feel as if
I can put one foot
in front of the other
and trust
where it'll land.
(UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU:
I started speaking
to neurologists
and what I discovered was
that Moth's condition
corticobasal degeneration
is really quite brutal
and very rapid progressing.
Is it possible
that his symptoms
were reversed
because of some kind of
chemical, biological,
medical response
to the walks that they had?
- (PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING)
- (DOG BARKS DISTANTLY)
In July, I was contacted
by a guy called John,
and he told me he had
read The Salt Path
and it had given him
a lot of hope.
He sent me this email.
"Chloe, I have
corticobasal syndrome
and feel devastated
by your revelations
about The Salt Path.
I've been reading the book
and found that my
diagnosis was similar."
JOHN: How are you?
HADJIMATHEOU: Really good
to see you.
"My wife and I were
inspired by the story and
given real hope.
If you are right
then that hope
is extinguished.
I can and will deal with it
but my wife may not."
- Have a seat.
- Thank you.
I was so affected
by that that morning.
JOHN: I remember
you saying, yeah.
Think in the email,
I probably--
I tend to tell you
what I mean.
HADJIMATHEOU:
John was diagnosed
with CBD in 2023.
Are you in any pain?
I have a lot of stiffness
and sometimes my hands
and my legs
are very stiff and painful.
How did The Salt Path book,
Raynor Winn's memoir,
first sort of enter
your consciousness?
A lady from the hospice
recommended the book
and said
there's a book out.
And she said
it's a really uplifting book
that, you know,
you might like
to read.
'Cause I'd never actually
come across anyone
with the condition.
I was engrossed in it.
Like...
I thought, "This is great",
you know?
'cause I'd started to doubt
that maybe, just maybe,
I need to sort of up my game
and fight it
'cause I wasn't fighting it,
you see,
because I'd been told
that it was pointless and
I'd just expend a lot of energy
fighting this condition.
So when I sort of
read this book
where this guy
seems to be doing
all kinds of incredible feats
of endurance and...
I was astonished.
I believed it.
I wanted to believe it.
And then
I saw your article.
I was upset.
I really didn't want
any part
of your investigation
to be correct.
HADJIMATHEOU: Moth's story
was so inspirational
to so many people
that he became an ambassador
for the charity PSPA,
which helps sufferers
with CBD.
They've since terminated
their relationship with Moth.
MOTH:
To be told you have
a terminal condition
that there's
no treatment for
and there is definitely
no cure
that was startling.
This whole CBD journey
started with a...
HADJIMATHEOU:
Dr. James Gratwicke
is a neurologist
who specializes
in corticobasal degeneration
and has been diagnosing it
for 20 years.
He was very interested
to see Moth in this video.
This is a man who claims
to have had this condition
for 18 years.
How does what you see
in this video
correspond to your experience
of treating patients
with the condition?
One thing's often very prominent
is loss of facial expression
and this is excellent
facial expression.
No problem with movement.
Certainly at 18 years,
I've never seen a CBS patient
walking very well
with good stride length.
MOTH:
CBD is a very
lonely existence.
Terminal condition, no cure.
Nobody gets it.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Dr. Gratwicke offered
to show me some scans
to demonstrate the effects
that CBD typically has
on a patient's brain.
JAMES: So what we're seeing here
is the amount of the chemical
dopamine in the brain.
The higher the amount
of dopamine chemical there,
the brighter the color.
This is what you should see
with a healthy brain.
Very, very bright signal.
What we would see
in corticobasal syndrome,
the concentration
will be less in these areas.
In a sense,
the whole brain gets darker
and points of light
are much smaller.
JAMES: Correct.
NARRATOR: Well, we've got
your DAT scan results.
Would you like to see them?
Moth glances at me.
Briefly raising an eyebrow.
"'I'd like to see the screen
lit up like a Christmas tree."
The consultant smiles.
Turning back to the screen.
"There you have it.
There's your Christmas tree."
HADJIMATHEOU:
In her third book, Landlines,
Raynor Winn talks about
Moth having
- brain scans.
- Right.
The neurologist says
the lights in Moth's brain
seem to be coming back on.
Is that something
you'd see in a patient
with corticobasal syndrome?
Um, that is not consistent
with corticobasal syndrome.
Or any Parkinsonian condition.
You won't get improvement
in a DAT scan.
It's only ever been shown
to be a progressive
degenerative process
and nothing anyone has done
has been able to increase
the brain mass
or reverse the loss of
dopaminergic cells
to make a scan brighter.
That does not happen.
And if by
some medical miracle,
- and do medical
miracles happen?
- Um, no.
HADJIMATHEOU:
And if it did happen,
would you expect that doctor
to be excited and to want
to publish about it?
It's almost a duty to publish
that kind of thing.
But you haven't
seen anyone publish
anything about somebody
with corticobasal syndrome
suddenly reversing
the condition?
If it had been published,
I would've seen it, yes.
There's no effective
treatment for it,
nothing to slow down
the progression
of the disease.
HADJIMATHEOU:
In 2023, Moth made
a rare appearance
on Rick Stein's series
in Cornwall.
RICK: Moth has thrown himself
into the art of traditional
cider making.
Much like you would chalk
the end of a snooker cue.
RICK: Amazing.
HADJIMATHEOU: This was when
he and Raynor were living
at Hay Farm close to Ruth.
- Way of controlling,
how much pressure.
- Fine tuning.
- You got this
terminal illness, is it?
- Yes, it is.
But I'm still going strong
thanks to walking
the coast path.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Moth is demonstrating
the really demanding
physical work
of traditional cider making
a full 16 years
since he claims the symptoms
of his disease began.
JAMES:
From point of diagnosis
of corticobasal syndrome,
the median survival time
is between
five to eight years.
The longest person
that's survived
I have treated, uh,
is eight or nine years.
They were requiring
24-hour care.
However difficult that is
to hear, very important
for people to know.
And giving that idea
that it could be reversed
through walking
large distances
could make patient feel
they were responsible
for its worsening,
and that would be wrong.
When we realized Moth's
was improving,
it added
a little layer of hope
into our life.
We thought
we'd never feel again.
And yeah, you can go
a long way on hope.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
JOHN:
I've always loved walking.
I really wanted
the book to be true.
HADJIMATHEOU:
How did you feel
when my article came out?
JOHN: I was angry.
The danger is that,
people are going to think
if they copy what
the Walkers did,
that everything's
gonna be hunky dory
and it'll all go away.
HADJIMATHEOU:
The idea that Raynor and Moth
hadn't been honest
about his health condition,
that's quite
a difficult thing
to report on.
And it became clear to me
very quickly
that I wouldn't be able
to prove categorically
that these people
had lied.
But what I could prove
was that their description
of the illness,
the passage of the illness
and the way in which
they'd reversed
the symptoms
was not something
that had ever
been documented
or experienced by a neurologist
I had spoken to in the UK.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
When I first set out
on this investigation,
first thing I did
was contact
Raynor and Moth.
I've contacted them
probably half a dozen times.
And they've refused
all my requests.
Raynor was initially
coming to this year's festival
to talk about her books
and her latest book
but she pulled out
of all public speaking events
when Chloe's research
was revealed.
HADJIMATHEOU:
I was invited to speak
at Dulverton Literary Festival
and it's gonna be
really interesting
to find out
what readers of
The Salt Path think now
given my investigation.
Finding out how much there was
untruth to it was just wild.
It was the part
about Moth and his illness
that really shocked me.
WOMAN:
It is a book about a walk.
Not about something
world-changing.
Just enjoy the book
that would be my view.
(CHUCKLES)
I think with every story
there's always a bit of fiction
added with the truth.
A memoir needs to be
reasonably authentic
to the truth otherwise
it's fiction, isn't it?
(APPLAUSE)
RACHEL:
So Raynor Winn continues
to maintain
and she repeats over and over,
this is the true story
of our journey,
but in publishing terms,
these terms
are very important.
You would've gone
to Penguin and say,
"What do you say,
you've published
this as a true story
of this couple's journey,
you've sold millions of copies,
they've made millions,
you've made millions
it's all a load of crap."
What did
the publishers say?
They said, "Nobody raised
any concerns with us."
They say, "We did
all due diligence."
And that's it.
That's the end of that.
I was such a believer that
when I had a, I think our 30th
wedding anniversary I--
I told my husband
who'd just been diagnosed,
- I said, "I know, let's walk
the South West coastal."
- (LAUGHTER)
And I was completely
bought into it.
I just lapped it up
like so many other people.
'Cause you weren't looking.
You weren't looking
to check untruth in it.
Actually, when you
pick up a book,
a memoir, and don't see it
coming from there,
so you open your heart to it
in a way you might not
in other areas of your life.
When I started,
I'd never read The Salt Path.
And you know, now,
it's consuming all my time
but I never got to read it
like the average reader.
I always read it
with a suspicious mind
and to my eye, there were
obvious red flags in it.
And I just had so many questions
about the publisher.
Couldn't they see
what I was seeing?
Didn't they ever
have any suspicions?
I tried to get someone from
Penguin to engage with me
for weeks
but didn't have any luck
but eventually I did find
a former employee of Penguin,
Amelia Fairney,
to talk to me.
She worked for them
for almost two decades
and she was at Penguin
when The Salt Path was
published.
- Hi.
- AMELIA: How are you?
HADJIMATHEOU:
Really good to meet you.
AMELIA:
Yeah, nice to meet you too.
Oh, this is
the memoir section.
I can see The Salt Path
down here.
She's got this
and The Wild Silence
and a third book, Landlines.
There's a fourth book.
I'm not sure
on the publication date
for that book.
- It was in October.
- Was it? Right.
Penguin announced it's delayed
because of the revelations.
Do you think they still have
aspirations to put that out?
I'm sure they do.
- Really?
- Yes.
- 100 percent.
- Despite the revelations?
Well, once
your investigation
came out,
Salt Path went to the top
of the bestseller list.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Were you at Penguin
when The Salt Path
- was first published?
- AMELIA: Yeah.
I definitely remember the buzz
internally around the book.
The Salt Path has sold
more than two million books,
translated into 25 languages.
- Is that really huge?
- Yes. (LAUGHS)
Yes. You would consider
a book a huge hit
if it has sold 100,000 copies.
- Once you're
getting into millions...
- That's really massive.
I think post-pandemic
particularly,
I think a heart-warming story
of an illness
which is mediated
by contact with nature,
it really tapped
into something at the time
and proved a huge hit.
Were you surprised
when my investigation
was published?
No. I wasn't surprised.
Book publishing
has a slightly
genteel image,
but it is a very
cut-throat competitive
commercial industry.
There is a pressure
to publish a lot and fast.
When you've got
a phenomenon book
like The Salt Path,
I can see why you would
just want to get
those books out there
as quickly as possible.
It's very difficult
to be a lone voice
saying, "You know,
actually I think some
of these medical claims
are overblown
in this manuscript by our
multimillion copy selling
star author."
You know,
that's really difficult.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What were the fact checking
processes for memoirs
when you were at Penguin?
AMELIA: Well, there isn't
a formal fact checking
process.
The author's contract states
they will deliver a manuscript
that is factually correct.
- Essentially on trust.
- Absolutely.
The onus is on the author.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Would Raynor Winn have signed
a contract
saying she was
legally responsible
for the truth
- of these memoirs?
- Yeah, that would be
in the contract.
REPORTER: We spoke
to Raynor and asked her
why she felt her story
connected with
so many people.
I think The Salt Path
had such a universal, um...
theme to it, really.
The question of what we do
when everything falls apart,
when life really
hits the wall,
how do we stand up?
How to go forward?
And that's a shared
human question
and brings up
many shared
human emotions.
WOMAN: Being out in nature
and how it can redeem and
make you feel better,
I think that is true.
I think anybody
going through
difficult times,
it gives you hope
you can do something
to make life better for you.
Walking and trekking,
that's my way of dealing with
quite difficult
things in my life
and I'm thankful for that.
So I really did feel
that I got it.
When they were
nearly blown away
by wind and sea,
I've been there,
I've done it.
So for me, it was great.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Raynor Winn's response
to my investigation was,
"Yes, well, this is our truth.
It's mine and Moth's truth,
Where is the harm?
Does it matter?"
A memoir is always
gonna present
a partial version
of events because it's
a subjective narrative,
but what gave these
books power was the fact
it was a true story.
People related to them,
to the real people,
so I don't think it would've
carried quite as much force
as a novel.
If you're publishing
something as a true story
then you are deceiving
your audience
if it's later found
not to be true.
I think that people
do trust books.
If something is printed
in between bound covers,
I think the general public
does still trust those words.
And I personally think
it would be a huge shame
to jeopardize that.
So realistically, what changes
could Penguin implement?
I do think that publishing needs
to take a look in the mirror
and if that means that it takes
a bit longer to publish a book
or an editor needs to be working
on fewer books at a time,
surely, it's worth it.
But there's no incentive
for them to change anything.
Your investigation
actually sent The Salt Path
back to the top of
the bestseller charts.
So in terms
of the publisher's
bottom line...
- I helped?
- Yeah.
- MAN 1: And a little
smile please. (LAUGHS)
- MAN 2: Thank you.
REPORTER:
What are you most proud of
about the film?
I feel like it faithfully
represents the book.
I really feel like,
collectively,
we got it right.
REPORTER:
What has life been like
since you wrote that book?
Oh, it's just
changed and grown
in different ways
that I would never
have expected.
HADJIMATHEOU: What's really
crazy about this investigation
is that,
each time
I pull on a thread,
it seems astounding.
A new angle was
coming together,
one that involved
people closest
to Raynor and Moth,
or Sally and Tim, and their
desire to see the truth
become public.
I hadn't tried to reach out
to their families.
I'd assumed that if I did,
I couldn't have imagined
they'd speak to me.
Members of Moth's family
came forward.
And I spoke to them.
It was clear there was
a massive rift in the families.
Both sides were
suffering deep hurt over
Sally and Tim's actions.
Eventually,
I traced Sally Walker's niece.
She told me
that she had
a confession letter
and this seemed to be
written by Sally Walker,
confessing to a series
of thefts.
I said, if you give me
permission I'd like
to share this
with Tim's family who I've been
speaking to for months,
and who I think,
given what's in this letter
might be prepared
to come forward,
so you wouldn't
be doing it alone,
and she agreed.
So I'm pretty nervous today
because finally,
they've said that they are
willing to come to London
and meet me,
but they're very, very nervous.
Everyone is very, very nervous.
These family members
haven't seen each other
in decades.
- Hello, guys.
- WOMAN 1: Hello.
- WOMAN 2: Hello.
- MAN: Hi.
- WOMAN 2: Can I hug you?
- WOMAN 1: Yes.
- So nice to meet you.
- Yeah. Nice to--
We've changed
their names and with
the exception of "Cecille",
they all asked to keep
their identities private.
- I don't remember you at all.
- MAN: It's a long time ago.
I don't know quite
what's happened to time.
- And I don't know
who to expect--
- Oh, same here. Yeah, yeah.
WOMAN:
Do you wanna grab a seat?
HADJIMATHEOU: The woman
we're calling "Fiona'"
is another of Tim's relatives.
And "Anne" is Sally's niece.
She's brought the letters.
What was it like for you reading
that article for the first time?
Well, for me,
I called my sister,
and I called her and I said,
"Oh, my God,
it's finally happening.
Someone knows."
Anne, you've brought
these letters to show
to Cecille and Fiona.
Can you tell me about them?
ANNE: So I've got
confession letters here.
Letters with Sally
confessing to stealing on top
of the Ros Hemmings,
where she openly admits to
stealing from my grandparents
and Tim's parents.
We have Sally basically saying,
"This is why I took the money.
Why I took the money
from your grandparents."
My grandmother
put them in a box
and gave them to Mum.
I was told where they were,
to keep them
because one day
I might need them.
I just can't believe
the evidence exists
for what she did.
"Please don't look any further
for the money.
I've taken all of it."
"The figures the bank
are giving you are correct."
"Any statements she had over
the last 18 months are fake.
I forged them."
"I ask you not to take things
further with the bank
but to tell them
it was a mistake."
"I have to ask
as I have a police record
and should this go further
I'll go to prison this time."
ANNE: She left my grandmother
no money,
forged bank statements.
It broke her
to the very core.
The daughter
who she idolized
and put on a pedestal
broke her.
"I can attempt
to explain the why."
"Tim invested half our capital
and lost all the money."
"As he became more depressed,
I became desperate
to hold him out of it
to keep some of
the real Tim alive."
"I took the money
and paid bills with it."
"If you'd asked me how much
I'd taken, I'd have said
maybe 10,000.
So when I was arrested
for the theft of 67,000,
I was stunned."
"During this time
in a mad panic,
I transferred 25,000
from Tim's Mum and Dad's
account to Tim's."
HADJIMATHEOU:
So after taking the 67,000
from Martin Hemmings,
she stole from her mother,
and she took thousands of pounds
from Tim's parents as well.
FIONA: Thousands, yeah.
Thousands.
WOMAN: It's very hard
to put a figure on these things
because they didn't
want to talk about it.
ANNE:
Nobody will ever say.
HADJIMATHEOU:
I mean, in that email,
she's categorically stating
- that she took
from both families.
- WOMAN: Yeah.
It's remarkable to see
a confession with it
written in.
HADJIMATHEOU:
What was it like in your family
when you were young?
FIONA: We're fairly close.
We used to love going to Wales.
- This is the Wales house.
Penymaes.
- The Wales house.
Tim and Sally's house was--
it was like a meeting place,
I suppose.
We used to see them
quite often.
CECILLE: I have very fond
childhood memories.
ANNE: Yeah.
They'd turn up and you're in
for some excitement.
They were
the fun uncle and auntie.
Always try to make you laugh.
Trying to do fun things.
FIONA: Especially Tim, I think.
CECILLE: Tim, he's got
this character.
ANNE:
Sally was desperately
in love with Tim.
That desperation to do
everything she can
to give Tim what he'd like.
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.
ANNE: But I think they have
this symbiotic relationship.
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Was Tim fully aware
of the finances
and what Sally was up to?
CECILLE: Tim's a character
where you don't know
what you can believe.
ANNE: He's a character
that as a child,
we would have all
found really exciting.
But as an adult
lacking total responsibility
and any connection
to reality.
FIONA:
My husband calls him
a fantasist.
When did you hear about
corticobasal degeneration?
Oh, we never
gave it serious
consideration.
I took what Tim said
with a pinch of salt.
FIONA: Put it this way.
We never worried
that he was ill.
I mean, that's awful to say
but he always made out
he was ill.
HADJIMATHEOU:
You didn't believe
much of the book then?
FIONA: Hundred percent. No.
CECILLE:
I read the first chapter.
She's making herself out
to be this victim
who'd been so hard done by
and I was so angry,
I threw the book
across the room.
ANNE:
If that was sold as fiction,
different kettle of fish.
A memoir. (SCOFFS)
And it's just a lie.
It's not fair. It's not right.
It's really not right.
And it hurt.
It hurt deeply.
It was a very strange time
to see her
rise up to be this--
so famous.
Interviews and videos
like the one
where she's on a sofa,
talking to Jason Isaacs.
Made me so angry.
He's very extroverted.
It's like meeting a tall,
slim Father Christmas.
And then
there's that video
of Tim and...
Oh, it's embarrassing.
- He sent us this message.
- What?
Jason, I just wanted to say,
what a pleasure it has been
meeting you
and an absolute honor
to see you portray me.
(CHUCKLES)
And he's like, "I never get
to portray nice people."
He says that,
but they're not nice people.
It's like a story,
you couldn't make that up.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
Our journey had drained us
of every emotion,
sapped our strength
and our will.
But then,
like windblown trees
along our route,
we had been reformed
by the elements
into a new shape that could
ride out whatever storms
came over
the bright new sea.
SABERTON:
We're all looking, aren't we,
for a happy ending?
When you close The Salt Path
and the other two books,
your heart is still
with Ray and Moth.
You always wonder,
how are they doing?
Is he okay?
Let's look at Instagram.
How are they getting on?
And when we find out
that we've been
mis-sold something,
we start to question
who's telling us the truth?
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
HADJIMATHEOU: It's about
six months now I've been
working on The Salt Path.
I was supposed to be
doing an investigation
in Syria.
I thought this was gonna be
a detour for a few weeks,
I had no idea that this story
was gonna go on and on.
I think there's a public
interest in setting
the record straight
and the important thing is,
when people have a clearer
picture of the facts,
they can make up
their own minds.
CECILLE: Because of
one person's actions,
so many people were affected.
- ANNE: They don't care
who they hurt.
- They don't care.
ANNE: She never
come back and gone,
"I'm really sorry I stole
half of all of this off Mum
and you had to help support
grandma and everything else.
I'm really sorry."
Like I presume
they've never
come back to you.
FIONA:
They don't say sorry.
- It's not just about money...
- ANNE: It's about,
- "I'm sorry.
I accept what I've done."
- Yeah.
HADJIMATHEOU:
Families are complicated
and it is hard to know
all that's gone on here.
If she really did take it,
she's worth millions now.
She could've paid
back both families
and said, "I did this
terrible thing. I don't know
where I was.
I was in
a really dark place."
What really made
an impression on me
was the fact
all this time Raynor Winn
was seen as a sort of a victim
and a vulnerable person
that people had
opened their hearts to.
It must have been hard
for family members
to watch all of that,
feeling the resentment
and hurt
they did towards her.
I wonder
what life has been like
for them carrying these
really dark secrets
for all of these years?
SABERTON:
Tim can't enjoy the spoils of
their fortunes there.
He can't enjoy
what they've earned.
If he's getting better
or he's well,
he has to not be seen.
'Cause people
will be looking.
I wonder if
she believes it now.
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR:
When you tell a story,
the first person
you must convince
is yourself.
If you can make yourself
believe it's true,
then everyone else
will follow.
NARRATOR:
We contacted Penguin,
the publisher of The Salt Path,
but they didn't respond.
Raynor Winn and Moth,
Sally and Tim Walker,
declined to provide
a response for the film.
In a statement published
at the time of The Observer's
first investigation,
Raynor Winn said,
"The Salt Path is about
what happened to Moth and me
after we lost our home
and found ourselves
homeless."
We're accused
of hiding behind
pseudonyms,
like most, we use these
nicknames, alongside
our real names.
The dispute
with Martin Hemmings
is not the court
case in The Salt Path.
Mr. Hemmings made an allegation
against me to the police,
accusing me
of taking money."
I was not charged.
I reached a settlement
because I did not have
the evidence required
to support what had happened.
I charted Moth's condition
with such a level of honesty.
I never sought to offer
medical advice in my books.
Or suggest that walking
might be some sort
of miracle for CBS.
The effect of the suggestion
that Moth made up
this condition
has been absolutely
traumatizing for him.
Raynor Winn denies
any thefts from the family
or writing the letter
and challenges
the families' recollections.