Human stories that rubbed salt in the wound

As the debate over Raynor Winn's memoir continues, people who feature in the book tell Chloe Hadjimatheou of their unease and dismay at the way they have been portrayed

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When Joanna Cocking, 51, found out that there was a reference to her Cornish beach cafe in The Salt Path, she was shocked to learn that the owner was depicted as a bully.

"When I got sent the bit of the book that we were in, I just felt sick. I just wanted to write to the publisher and say: 'You can't write this.”

She was sure there must be some mistake until she realised that none of the details in The Salt Path matched her establishment.

The bestselling memoir, recently adapted into a film, was presented as a true story by its author, Raynor Winn. But a recent investigation by The Observer, and claims from individuals connected to Winn and her husband, Timothy - known as Moth suggest that significant details were omitted or exaggerated.

In the book which publisher Penguin (Michael Joseph) has described as "unflinchingly honest" Winn describes how, having lost their home and with nowhere else to go, the couple walked the 630-mile (1,014km) South West Coast Path, free-camping along the way.

At one point they stopped at a cafe in Mullion Cove, a pretty harbour on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. "A man in his 20s waited tables, cleared tables, politely dealt with grumpy customers, cut cakes, swept the floor," Winn writes, before she describes the arrival of the angry owner.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? There's two tables out there uncleared. What do I pay you for? You're fucking lazy."

According to the book, the waiter gives the couple a free panini each before announcing that he is quitting. In Winn's account, the young man then locks up and drops the key through the letterbox.

"When I read that, I was thinking: 'That can't be us.' I was absolutely mortified," said Cocking. "She never named the cafe but she might as well have because there is only one cafe in this cove."