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Speaker 1: From the Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.

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Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. The Salt Path, a best selling memoir

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Speaker 1: by Rayna Winn, seems to be following what's becoming a

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Speaker 1: predictable trajectory. Faced with adversity, a protagonist embarks on an

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Speaker 1: epic quest, finding meaning on the way. The resulting memoir

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Speaker 1: is inspiring and labeled unflinchingly honest. Copies fly off the shells.

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Speaker 1: The manuscript is optioned and turned into a hit movie,

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Speaker 1: this one starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. But similar

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Speaker 1: to James Fray's A Million Little Pieces, a memoir about

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Speaker 1: drug and alcohol addiction, which had to be reclassified as

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Speaker 1: semi fiction after various exaggerations and fabrications were uncovered, and

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Speaker 1: Belle Gibson's The Whole Pantry, a cancer miracle cure cookbook

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Speaker 1: written by A Kancas who never had cancer. The Saltpath's

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Speaker 1: authenticity has now been called into question after an investigation

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Speaker 1: published this week by the Observer. The author, Rayna Winn

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Speaker 1: is strongly denying The Observer's allegations, and you'll hear more

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Speaker 1: from her soon, joining me to unpack the saga is

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Speaker 1: Tim Douglas, in house expert on all things cultural and

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Speaker 1: editor of review published in the weekend edition of The Australian.

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Speaker 1: The Salt Path starts with the author, Rayna Wynn and

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Speaker 1: her husband Moth losing it all after an investment with

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Speaker 1: their friend goes south, homeless and destitute. The hits keep

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Speaker 1: coming for this middle aged couple.

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Speaker 2: We also house, We lost our livelihood, and a few

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Speaker 2: days later my husband of thirty two years received a

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Speaker 2: terminal diagnosis an we gosto future.

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Speaker 1: The diagnosis is for cordico basal degeneration, a rare and

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Speaker 1: degenerative brain disease with similarities to Parkinson's. With nothing to lose,

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Speaker 1: the couple embark on a thousand kilometer walk along the

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Speaker 1: southwest Coast path of Britain.

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Speaker 2: It became more than just a walk for us. It

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Speaker 2: became something that saved us.

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Speaker 1: Only this week, a widow named Ross Hemmings has detailed

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Speaker 1: in The Observer a very different sequence of events. Hemmings

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Speaker 1: alleges that Winn, whom she knew by her legal name

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Speaker 1: Sally Walker, had embezzled money from her late husband Martin

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Speaker 1: while working as his bookkeeper. The initial sum was thought

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Speaker 1: to be around nine thousand pounds. Winn pleaded for forgiveness,

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Speaker 1: according to Roz, and assured her employer the money would

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Speaker 1: be repaid only soon after it was established the missing

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Speaker 1: sum was much higher, like close to sixty thousand pounds higher.

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Speaker 1: Here's what Roz Hemmings told the Observer newspaper in Britain.

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Speaker 1: She's made a lot of money out of ruining my

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Speaker 1: family's life. Allegedly, Winn was arrested in questioned, but flew

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Speaker 1: the coup before further action could be taken. Then, a

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Speaker 1: distant relative of Wynn's husband, Tim also known as Morth,

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Speaker 1: bailed the couple out with a one hundred thousand pound

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Speaker 1: loan and in return, the Hemmings's agreed to drop the

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Speaker 1: matter and sign a non disclosure agreement. Then, reportedly the

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Speaker 1: loan was called in and that's how they lost the house.

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Speaker 1: Hardly a business venture gone south. Here's part of a

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Speaker 1: statement raynal Wynn has released. She's denying any wrongdoing. We've

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Speaker 1: included in the show notes a link to her full statement,

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Speaker 1: and we're including some of it here too. But it's

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Speaker 1: fair to say she has a detailed response to what

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Speaker 1: The Observer has reported We've used an AI voice to

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Speaker 1: read the statement, and you'll hear more of Rain and

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Speaker 1: Ween's responses throughout this episode.

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Speaker 3: The Observer article is grotesquely unfair, highly misleading, and seeks

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Speaker 3: to systematically pick apart my life. But as our walk

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Speaker 3: along the Salt Path taught us, when life has ground

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Speaker 3: you into the dirt, you need to stand up, turn

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Speaker 3: your face to the wind, and continue unafraid. So that

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Speaker 3: is what I must do. I worked for Martin Hemmings

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Speaker 3: in the years before the economic crash of two thousand

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Speaker 3: and eight. For me, it was a pressured time. It

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Speaker 3: was also a time when mistakes were being made in

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Speaker 3: the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in

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Speaker 3: that office I deeply regret and I am truly sorry.

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Speaker 3: Mister Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police,

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Speaker 3: accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned.

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Speaker 3: I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.

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Speaker 3: I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did

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Speaker 3: not have the evidence required to support what happened.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the decisions that have been made up

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Speaker 1: until this point. Penguin Random House would have given this

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Speaker 1: woman an advance to write this book, and how to

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Speaker 1: sign a contract in which presumably she would have given

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Speaker 1: an undertaking that it was true. This is not the

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Speaker 1: only literary scandal that's around at the moment, But but once

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Speaker 1: a year we hear that a best selling book is

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Speaker 1: based on an untruth or that there might be some

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Speaker 1: doubt about its origins. Do you think it matters for

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Speaker 1: the publishing house? They're now getting a huge amount of

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Speaker 1: publicity out of it.

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Speaker 4: Those books are sold, so it's already sold two million

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Speaker 4: books and counting. Whether this will harm that is another story.

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Speaker 4: So I think that it's an interesting question about whether

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Speaker 4: it matters. It's a really philosophical one. I mean, in

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Speaker 4: this country, of course, we've got Helen Dennadenko and Miles

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Speaker 4: Franklin winning the handsign the paper, and we have the

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Speaker 4: normal curity scandal of course that broke. We've got Bell

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Speaker 4: Gibson too, and there are shades of that with this

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Speaker 4: story also. So I think her subsequent books will be

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Speaker 4: harm She's got a book coming out in a month

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Speaker 4: or two, I believe.

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Speaker 5: But I think the film side of it is really interesting.

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Speaker 4: It had kind of a muted release here, opened in May,

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Speaker 4: took four hundred thousand on the opening weekend. But in

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Speaker 4: the UK it's massive. It's the third biggest film of

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Speaker 4: the year there already, it's taken almost eight million pounds

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Speaker 4: at the box office. It is yet to secure a

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Speaker 4: North American release, and I think it is an independent film,

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Speaker 4: so independent films have a slow burn. So this was

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Speaker 4: released last year at Toronto Film Festival in September, got

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Speaker 4: a lot of recognition there, then had a release in

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Speaker 4: the UK and Australia simultaneously. But the producers bank on

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Speaker 4: word of mouth from a big kind of UK release

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Speaker 4: to secure those theaters in the US to really make

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Speaker 4: their money back. Now, if social media is any indication,

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Speaker 4: I think that looks increasingly unlikely that major cinemas would

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Speaker 4: take a gamble on that.

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Speaker 5: They also wait for the streaming.

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Speaker 4: Rights to roll out. Will anyone want to watch this

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Speaker 4: on a streaming platform? If these allegations prove to be true,

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Speaker 4: It's an interesting question.

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Speaker 1: What do you think is the responsibility of publishers and

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Speaker 1: film houses when they're buying a story like this. Obviously

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Speaker 1: there's a commercial consideration, but is there also an ethical

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Speaker 1: question here, particularly when it relates to something medical?

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Speaker 5: Well, I mean there is.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I think as journalists we find it difficult

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Speaker 4: to understand how a publishing house might not perform due

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Speaker 4: diligence and get across that story and say, Okay, this

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Speaker 4: isn't your real name. This didn't actually happen. I mean,

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Speaker 4: one would have thought that there are people employed to

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Speaker 4: perhaps you know, tract.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, when you're signing a legal contract with someone,

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Speaker 1: surely you would be asking to see a driver's license

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Speaker 1: at least.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Rain and Winn responded with this, let me explain my names.

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Speaker 3: Win is my maiden name, and like most women who

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Speaker 3: have married, I've used both my maiden name Win and

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Speaker 3: married name Walker. In the early years after Math and

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Speaker 3: I met, I told him I disliked my name Sally Ann.

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Speaker 3: It made me think of ringlets and Gingham dresses and

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Speaker 3: how I wished I'd been given the family name of Raynor.

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Speaker 3: From then on, he called me ray It is the

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Speaker 3: name many people who are close to me have known

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Speaker 3: me by, and the name I love and chose as

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Speaker 3: my pen name, Moth is just an abbreviation of his name, Timothy.

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Speaker 4: I think the medical issue is a different concern, because,

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Speaker 4: of course it's patient doctor confidentiality. And there are from

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Speaker 4: one of the better term, miraculous things that happen in

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Speaker 4: terms of health, whether that is becoming a terminal, very rare,

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Speaker 4: serious neurological condition by going out for a stroll is.

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Speaker 5: A Is that the issue?

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Speaker 3: Here's what Rhina Wein said about that among the Observer's

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Speaker 3: many accusations, the most heartbreaking is the suggestion that Moth

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Speaker 3: has made up his illness. This utterly vile, unfair, and

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Speaker 3: false suggestion has emotionally dev stated Moth, who has fought

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Speaker 3: so hard against the insidious condition of cortico basil syndrome.

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Speaker 3: I have never sought to offer medical advice in my

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Speaker 3: books or suggests that walking might be some sort of

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Speaker 3: miracle cure for CBS. I am simply charting Moth's own

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Speaker 3: personal journey and battle with his illness and what has

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Speaker 3: helped him. We will always be grateful that Moth's version

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Speaker 3: of CBS is indolent. Its slow progression has allowed us

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Speaker 3: time to discover how walking helps him. Others aren't so lucky.

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Speaker 1: Publishing has survived against all the odds. Probably twenty years

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Speaker 1: ago there were predictions that publishing would die, but it's

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Speaker 1: books like beasts that have kept publishing, isn't it. Memoir

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Speaker 1: has been a big part of along with romanticy, of

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Speaker 1: why people are still buying books in paper discussing them

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Speaker 1: in book clubs. Do you think in the age of

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Speaker 1: social media, where publishing houses are very quick to leap

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Speaker 1: on something that's big on TikTok, that there's a diminution

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Speaker 1: of the checks and balances that they once would have

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Speaker 1: gone through. They've lost a bit of their power.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they may have done that.

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Speaker 4: I mean, you're right, memoir is huge, and you know,

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Speaker 4: I'm waiting for yours to come out, actually, because I

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Speaker 4: think people would be quite interested, to be honest, I

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Speaker 4: expect to people in publishing all the time and they're

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Speaker 4: always looking for.

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Speaker 5: That new story.

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Speaker 4: I feel like this one was apparently the author wrote

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Speaker 4: the book.

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Speaker 5: Just for a husband. I mean, what do we believe anymore?

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Speaker 4: But it didn't intend for really to become a published

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Speaker 4: book or let alone a publishing phenomenon. But yeah, I

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Speaker 4: think it's interesting in the world of social media and

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Speaker 4: selfie culture and generation me that those personal stories, embellished

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Speaker 4: as they may be, are so interesting to people.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about where the story goes after the loss

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Speaker 1: of the house and the diagnosis. In the book, they

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Speaker 1: set out on one of these walks that middle aged

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Speaker 1: people seem to be doing a lot now and what

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Speaker 1: happens on the course of that walk in the book, Well.

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Speaker 5: I read the book. There was a lot of whining

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Speaker 5: that happened in it. I've found really hard going.

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Speaker 4: Maybe I'm the only one, but basically they realized that

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Speaker 4: the pension they're going to get from the government isn't

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Speaker 4: enough to really keep them alive, so they beg borrow

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Speaker 4: and steal and steal in some cases from small business owners,

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Speaker 4: and you know, they meet other people along the path,

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Speaker 4: but invariably I found there's this really insufferable tone from

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Speaker 4: the author of the book about how they were doing

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Speaker 4: it the only righteous way, and that other people on

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Speaker 4: the path are always rude to them, and no one

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Speaker 4: could believe that they could possibly do this walk.

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Speaker 5: And it's a good walk. I mean six hundred and

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Speaker 5: thirty miles.

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Speaker 4: I think it's onenty twelve kilometers from Somerset to Dorset,

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Speaker 4: so it's a big effort. But I found some of

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Speaker 4: the writing quite difficult.

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Speaker 1: Going more of my chat with Tim Douglas after the

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Speaker 1: Break it's meant to be uplifting, obviously, and that's one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why this book went viral. It was

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Speaker 1: a story of triumph over adversity. These people took their situation,

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Speaker 1: which was basically being homeless, and turned it into an adventure.

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Speaker 1: That's a new genre in publishing, isn't it. We used

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Speaker 1: to have misery memoirs. Now we have middle aged people

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Speaker 1: where something bad happens and then they.

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Speaker 5: Go for more. Yeah, it's true.

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Speaker 4: My wife or her friend's fortieth just did the Santiago

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Speaker 4: to Compostella Walk because one hundred and sixty kilometer walk

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Speaker 4: as part of the Camino de Santiago Walk. A friend

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Speaker 4: of hers, at a dinner party maybe three or four

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Speaker 4: weeks ago, said, you have to read this book.

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Speaker 5: I hadn't seen the film.

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Speaker 4: I still haven't seen it, but he said, you have

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Speaker 4: to read this book because it's just so uplifting. It's amazing,

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Speaker 4: You've got to do this walk, and so, Yeah, people

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Speaker 4: in their forties and fifties are now, you know, really

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Speaker 4: embarking on these kind of journeys trying to stay far.

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Speaker 4: But you're right, it's a new genre, and look, it's

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Speaker 4: worked for Raynal Winns. She's had three subsequent book deals

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Speaker 4: out of it, all of which detail her husband Moths

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Speaker 4: overcoming this horrible disease with which he has lived for

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Speaker 4: eighteen years, apparently.

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Speaker 1: And that's the other part of the story with which

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Speaker 1: the Observer has raised questions, isn't it because neurologists who

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Speaker 1: are specialists in this particular disease are saying nobody lives

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Speaker 1: for eighteen years, and certainly nobody lives in what appears

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Speaker 1: to be quite good.

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Speaker 4: Health exactly, and not just good health, but doing the

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Speaker 4: equivalent of as it says in the book for Summits

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Speaker 4: of Everest on this walk. I mean, these people are

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Speaker 4: in good nick.

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Speaker 1: There was obviously something about this book that had your

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Speaker 1: spidy senses tingling when you were reading it. Do you

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Speaker 1: feel justified now in your hatred of it as a

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Speaker 1: piece of literature? And doesn't mean you don't have to

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Speaker 1: go on one of these epic walks?

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Speaker 4: Well, okay, two things. It means I don't have to

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Speaker 4: watch the film, which I've managed to avoid doing.

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Speaker 5: I didn't hate it. I just found the Tony sufferable.

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Speaker 4: And you know this kind of inverse noobbery of being

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Speaker 4: out on the trail and all these people with their flashbackpacks.

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Speaker 5: We're doing it the right way.

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Speaker 4: You know, no one believed we could do it, and

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Speaker 4: all these serendipitous coincidences that I just found a little

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Speaker 4: bit darling. As for the walk, my wife wants to

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Speaker 4: do the Camino Way from Santiago to Compostella. I'm one

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Speaker 4: hundred percent in it's eight hundred ks. I just need

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Speaker 4: to convince the editor in chief to let me have

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Speaker 4: eight weeks off work fully paid.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you could be writing a book about it.

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Speaker 5: I'm not sure anyone would want to read that.

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Speaker 1: Tim Douglas is the editor of Review. You can check

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Speaker 1: it out by picking up a copy of the Weekend

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Speaker 1: Australian or going to the Australian dot com dot auslash

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Speaker 1: Review anytime. This episode of the Front was hosted by

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Speaker 1: met Claire Harvey and produced by Jasper Leek, who edited

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Speaker 1: the episode and also wrote our theme. Thanks for joining

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Speaker 1: us on the Front this week. Our team also includes

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Speaker 1: Christian amyot Leat, Sammaglu, Tiffany Dimac, Joshua Burton and Stephanie Coombs.