> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 7 February 2019
  • ISBN: 9781405937184
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $26.00

The Salt Path




The uplifting true story. A Sunday Times bestseller, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize

The story of the couple who lost everything and embarked on a journey, not of escape, but salvation.

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset via Devon and Cornwall.

They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

  • Published: 7 February 2019
  • ISBN: 9781405937184
  • Imprint: Michael Joseph
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $26.00

Also by Raynor Winn

See all

Praise for The Salt Path

The landscape is magical, shape-shifting seas and smugglers' coves; myriad sea birds and mauve skies . . . It's a tale of triumph: of hope over despair; of love over everything . . . home was no longer about bricks and mortar. It was a state of mind

The Sunday Times

This beautiful, meditative book should give us all a sense of our possible braveries: offering us an answer to the "what if?" questions - "what if we lost absolutely everything, what would we do?" . . . An extraordinary testament to love, hope and resilience.

Greg Wise, actor and co-author of Not That Kind of Love

The most inspirational book of this year . . . In some ways The Salt Path reads like the ultimate drop-out odyssey, except that this journey isn't a life choice . . . What the book chiefly conveys is the human capacity for endurance and the regenerative power of nature . . . The Salt Path also serves as a reminder that Britain is a land criss-crossed by footpaths and that we take this 140,000-mile national glory for granted at our peril . . . The Salt Path has reminded me to scrape last year's mud from my walking boots and get rambling again. I hope it has the same impact on millions of others.

Richard Morrison, The Times

What an absolutely glorious and moving book. It deserves all its praise!

Vybarr Cregan-Reid, author of Footnotes and Primate Change

Uplifting and inspirational

Woman & Home

A triumph of love and hope and giving oneself up to the healing power of nature. Beautifully written with vivid imagery, what a heart-warming and glorious read

Ali Land, author of Good Me, Bad Me

A remarkable and redemptive journey

Summer Books of 2018, Financial Times

The Salt Path is a life-affirming tale of enduring love that smells of the sea and tastes of a rich life. With beautiful, immersive writing, it is a story heart-achingly and beautifully told.

Jackie Morris, illustrator of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane

You lost me a whole night's work. This is a great read.

Paddy Dillon

The Salt Path broke my heart and put it back together again over and over. Beautiful writing, and such a sharp eye - both for nature and for people. It's hopeful and sad and honest and I LOVED it.

Maggie Harcourt, author of Unconventional and The Last Summer of Us

A remarkable account of the healing power of landscape and the resilience of the human spirit. I felt the rain on my face and heard the waves pounding on the sand.

Phillipa Ashley

The Salt Path pummelled me like Atlantic winds. It carried me along on a rain-soaked, sun-burnt, despair-infused, hope-driven walk. The writing is at times raw, poetic, funny, shocking. It is consistently honest, vulnerable, clear. I finished the book reminded of the importance of really hearing people's stories, of the healing power of the natural world, and of our individual and collective now.

The Ecologist

A fabulous read, inspiring and life-affirming. If you're not already walking the coastal path, this book will make you want to set-off immediately. It is a hymn to the power of love, sear-air and the natural beauty of Cornwall to heal and nurture. It's an absolute joy

Cornwall Life

An inspirational nature memoir for fans of H is for Hawk about losing everything and finding yourself between the elements of sea and sky

Waterstones

This is a wonderful, heart-gladdening, life-affirming read. It will make you want to walk. What a gem.

Kate Riordan, author of The Girl in the Photograph

An exquisite piece of writing

Western Morning News

An astonishing narrative of two people dragging themselves from the depths of despair along some of the most dramatic landscapes in the country, looking for a solution to their problems and ultimately finding themselves.

Independent

A beautiful, thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, human strength and endurance

Guardian

Mesmerising. It is one of the most uplifting, inspiring books that I've ever read

i (The paper for today)

A thoughtful, lyrical story of homelessness, strength and endurance

The Week

An inspirational true story

Top Sante

Ray's account of their incredible journey is a tale of triumph, of hope over despair

Pick of the paperbacks, The Sunday Times

A moving true story

i Paper

An uplifting tale

Cornish Times

Filled with wry humour, this is a wonderfully uplifting and touching book

Guardian

Vivid . . .This is a book essentially about hope, but also about sheer gritty determination not to give in, to survive extreme discomfort, danger and sometimes disillusionment

Kibworth & District Chronicle

By turns inspirational and horrifying . . . [Winn] writes with a detail and a joy that tugs at the reader, lifting this beyond a mere travel memoir and all the privations and hardship to be something truly meaningful

Times Higher Education

Beautiful, sad, erudite and uplifting

The New European

It's a heart-warming, heart-wrenching story, told by Raynor in vivid yet plain prose. There are so many wonderful passages

Church Times

A gem of a book

Guardian, Best Books of Summer

We walk with Ray and Moth every step of the way, sharing the hunger, exhaustion, blazing heat and freezing rain in an account that is both lyrical and inspirational

Guardian, Top 10 books about walking in Britain

An extraordinary memoir - moving, funny and uplifting

Open Up

An inspirational and lyrically observed memoir on the regenerative power of walking in nature, as well as a reminder that material things are much less important than we sometimes think. If you love the landscape of the British coastline and are drawn to the philosophies of mindfulness and minimalism, this is a moving and reflective book to read during a break from your everyday life

Gill Walker, Newham Books, Guardian

A life-affirming story that examines grief and the power of nature

Liz Earle Wellbeing

Raynor's writing is beautiful. It's a heart-wrenching read at times, but you won't be able to put it down

Mirror

Poignant . . . It's far from a book without hope, and you'll be with Raynor and Moth every step of their walk along the South West Coast Path

Country Walking

This is what you need to read right now to muster hope and resilience. A beautiful story and a reminder that humans can endure adversity

Stylist

Radiant, soaring, heartstring-tugging

BBC Countryfile

Inspirational

Good Housekeeping

A beautiful ode to how nature can soothe and inspire hope with every step . . . this book is really special

Stylist

Moving and beautifully evocative

i

A heart-wrenching, inspiring tale of one couple's enduring love for each other in the face of calamity and of their accidental odyssey along England's South West Coast Path

Advnture

Harnesses the wildness of rock, sky and coastal walking in life-affirming prose

Emma Stonex, Guardian

A love story of resilience and optimism, brimming with heart and humanity

Ruth Jones, Prima

Utterly inspirational

The Times

A gripping domestic disaster story turned celebration of survival

Country Walking

A thoughtful reflection on ageing and infirmity, home and homelessness, hope and survival

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, Daily Telegraph

Raynor Winn's glorious memoir tells the real-life story of her hike along the South West Coast Path, which she embarked upon with her husband after they lost their home. It's raw yet uplifting - and guaranteed to inspire your next adventure

Huffington Post UK

A true story of hope in a dire situation

Daily Express

Luminescent. A literary phenomenon

Mail on Sunday

A real-life story about triumph over adversity and the healing power of nature

My Weekly