The Walkers: The Real Salt Path | Episode 7: The Missing Book

Podcast: Tortoise Investigates
Host/Reporter: Chloe Hadjimatheou
Date: February 17, 2026

Overview

This episode, "The Missing Book," concludes the Tortoise Investigates series on Raynor Winn, her memoir The Salt Path, and the unraveling controversies about its truthfulness. Reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou follows the trail of a little-known novel (How Not to Da Deer) attributed to Winn’s earlier literary persona and explores whether the phenomenon and power of memoirs can withstand significant distortion of truth. The episode dives into how personal storytelling, publishing ethics, and public trust are entwined—and what happens when the contract with the reader is broken.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of The Salt Path and the "Happy Accident" Narrative

• Raynor Winn is known for presenting The Salt Path as a book never meant for public eyes but written for her husband.
  • [02:10] "The Salt Path was an accidental book. It was never written with the intention of being read by anyone but Moth." – Chloe Hadjimatheou
  • [02:37] "I started to write it just for him, just so that I could create a record of that time...I printed it...tied it up with string and gave him it for his birthday. My daughter read it before he did, you know, as kids do. And she said, 'Mum, this isn't bad, you should do something with it.'" – (Raynor Winn, quoted/paraphrased)

Key Contradiction

• Chloe uncovers that Raynor (previously Sally Walker) had authored a book before: a crime novel, How Not to Da Deer, under the alias Izzy Wynn Thomas.
  • [03:19] "The thing is, that's not true. Raina Wynne had written a book before..."

2. The Search for the Missing Book

• The book (How Not to Da Deer) is linked to a company started by Tim Walker. Tracking it down becomes a major strand.
  • [04:50-06:46] Chloe interviews Steve Lloyd Wright, a local Welsh bookshop owner, about the book’s mysterious absence despite the couple's local ties.
  • [07:16] "No dice. Not in Steve's shop, not anywhere. This book has proved extremely difficult to find for months."

3. Memoir, Truth, and Emotional Honesty: The Genre’s Pact

• Chloe discusses the fallout and disappointment among memoirists and readers, bringing in memoirist Clover Stroud for perspective.
  • [10:27] "There has been a lot of disappointment from other memoirists and some anger and shock and disillusionment." – Clover Stroud
  • [12:15] "When I'm sitting down to write memoir, I am going very deeply into my internal psychological world. And if I'm not honest about what's happening there, then I'm undermining the reader..." – Clover Stroud

Fact-Checking in Publishing

• Amelia Fernie, a veteran publisher, explains the industry’s reliance on author trust, not rigorous fact verification.
  • [14:25] "There isn't really a sort of fact checking process for memoirs within publishing. Mostly they're just taken on trust." – Amelia Fernie

4. Medical Claims and Publishing Responsibility

• Investigates the extraordinary claim in Winn's third book that walking healed Moth’s terminal condition.
  • [17:52] “That's difficult to swallow if the illness has been misrepresented in a way that has offered anybody suffering from that condition false hope.” – Amelia Fernie

5. The Nature of the Missing Book and its Revelations

• The book is finally found—a rare copy from a US Amazon seller.

  • [24:10] "I've got a bit of news myself and I wanted to tell you that we found the book." – James Urquhart
  • [25:41] "I think it's a memoir, in a way." – Chloe Hadjimatheou
  • [25:47] "I agree. It's kind of almost a confession." – James Urquhart

• Parallels found between the novel and life events reported in The Salt Path. Signature anecdotes—such as the famous “Mars bar in the tea” scene—are present in nearly identical language.

  • [27:07] Reading from both books: “As he dipped a Mars bar in a cup of tea, I was mesmerized.”

6. Blurring of Truth, Memoir, and Fiction

• The podcast underscores how personal narrative is constructed, sometimes blending wishful versions with real events.
  • [33:46] "In memoir, there's a pact with the reader that you don't have with fiction...when facts start falling apart, we start questioning the spiritual and emotional truth of a book, too." – Chloe Hadjimatheou

7. The Fallout—Reader Trust and the Memoir Contract

• Memoirists, readers, and industry insiders reflect on how Winn's case undermines genre trust and may have real-world consequences.

  • [41:05] "That's what's really sad, I suppose, about this story is because this nice story about good people who'd had something awful done to them is just another story actually of people behaving badly." – Clover Stroud
  • [41:44] "The power of a true story story lies in the fact that it promises to tell the reader something real about what it is to be human and about what's possible." – Chloe Hadjimatheou

• Chloe notes how misinformation and trust erosion are at stake, not just literary ethics.

  • [39:32] "People increasingly are not believing anything that they're told... if something is printed in between bound covers, I think the general public does still trust those words."

8. Raynor Winn's Response

• Winn (as Sally Walker) acknowledges authorship of How Not to Da Deer on her website and defends their use of pseudonyms, insisting:
  • "We are accused of hiding behind pseudonyms. This is blatantly untrue. Like most, we use these nicknames alongside our legal names..."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the contract of memoir
  "[12:15] When I'm sitting down to write memoir, I am going very deeply into my internal psychological world. And if I'm not honest about what's happening there, then I'm undermining the reader, certainly. But I'm also undermining myself as a writer and as an artist." – Clover Stroud

• On the gravity of deception
  "[42:26] To pull off a heist this big, and if it is what you think it is, it is a huge heist which has taken in millions of people...and it's a big deception to pull off." – Clover Stroud

• On storytelling vs. fact
  "[37:22] No, no, I don't think... it wasn't... I'm sure it wasn't a deliberate scam because publishing a book is too hard a way to make money... somewhere along the way, the storytelling unfortunately seems to have overtaken the truth." – Amelia Fernie

• On what’s truly sad about the story
  "[41:05] ...this nice story about good people who'd had something awful done to them is just another story actually of people behaving badly. And that's what's really sad about it. Cause it sort of makes you... question your faith in human beings." – Clover Stroud

Important Timestamps

• [02:10–03:19] – Raynor's claimed origins of The Salt Path and contradiction revealed.
• [04:50–07:30] – Investigating the missing novel in Wales.
• [09:30–13:08] – Memoirists’ reactions and debate about truth in memoir.
• [14:25–17:27] – Publisher’s perspective on fact-checking and the role of profit.
• [24:10–27:34] – Discovery and analysis of the missing novel; signature story overlaps.
• [33:27–33:40] – The fiction book appears closer to reality than the memoir.
• [39:32–41:05] – Trust in books, the danger of lost public trust.
• [41:05–42:48] – Broad reflections on truth, trust, and human stories.

Tone & Style

Chloe Hadjimatheou leads with honesty, empathy, and a forensic curiosity, challenging but not cynically dismissing the motives behind Winn’s storytelling. Interviewed memoirists and publishers speak with a mix of dismay, earnestness about the genre’s needs, and pragmatism about industry realities.

Final Thoughts

"The Missing Book" is not just about an elusive novel. It's about the responsibilities of writers and publishers, the blurred lines between memoir and fiction, and the cost when the truth is bent too far. The episode closes with the paradox that real stories, however messy, are compelling enough without embellishment. Chloe leaves listeners with the question: how far can storytelling go before it overshadows the very truth it seeks to illuminate?

End of Summary.