As a former Penguin executive, I'm not shocked. Publishing is now about profit before truth

How shocking are the allegations that Raynor Winn may have twisted the truth in her bestselling memoir, presenting as fact what appears to be an extremely partial version of events?

- Amelia Fairney

For me, as a book publishing insider of more than 30 years, not very. A quick tour of the trade reveals many similar examples: self-confessed serial plagiarist Johann Hari's most recent book, Magic Pill, contained inaccurate claims that had to be corrected post-publication; Boris Johnson's political memoir, Unleashed, boasted a string of errors (including, unforgivably, the number of victims of the 7/7 bombings); and Steven Bartlett, a podcaster exposed by the BBC as regularly platforming health misinformation, has been gifted his own imprint at Penguin Random House.

Winn, in a long statement on her website, has now offered her rebuttal of The Observer's investigation, stating that The Salt Path is "not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope".

The fact is that publishing has a fact-checking problem, as demonstrated by the scandalously steady stream of nonfiction books subsequently debunked as containing outright falsehoods, spreading misinformation or presenting an unsubstantiated interpretation of historical events.

When I asked a senior executive at one publishing house to comment for this piece they jokingly replied: "There but for the grace, etc."

I worked at Penguin Random House for 28 years because I believed in its founder Allen Lane's original mission to bring quality information to a mass audience. That vision is now under threat from publishing processes that put profit before truth.