The Salt Path illustrates the pitfalls of writing a memoir

As Raynor Winn's beloved tale is hit by claims of fabrication, Rowan Pelling reflects on the seductive power of storytelling

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It’s hardly news that some autobiographical tales are embroidered. The late Clive James brilliantly called one of his volumes Unreliable Memoirs to underline the fact that authors tend to jazz up their anecdotes. But there’s embellishment and there’s ripping apart at the seams, inserting brocade and a crossstitched Homer Simpson, and trying to insist your endeavour is as authentic as the Bayeux Tapestry.

That’s famously what happened with James Frey’s account of drug addiction, A Million Little Pieces, in which many details were shown to be fictionalised — including the claim that he’d spent 87 days in jail after a fracas with the police, rather than a few hours.

And now similar accusations have been levelled against the massive UK bestseller The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn. The book is billed as the redemptive tale of a couple who lose their Welsh home after a bad investment in a friend’s business and the unexpected discovery that their property is considered collateral. Notching up blow upon blow, Raynor then discovers that her husband, Moth, appears to have CBD (an incurable, degenerative condition much like Parkinson’s), and the duo set off on an epic 600-mile coastal walk to find themselves through nature. By the book’s end, they’ve had an epiphany, and Moth has even found his symptoms much alleviated.

The only problem is, it has been claimed that the truth may be somewhat different. An investigation by The Observer