The Salt Path Scandal: ‘excellent’ documentary of a ‘tawdry tale’

“The Salt Path Scandal” is filled with “tasty nuggets”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Sky’s documentary follows journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou as she delves into the alleged lies and deceit behind the bestselling memoir “The Salt Path”. Those who read her investigation in The Observer last summer will be familiar with the “fascinatingly tawdry tale”.

Described by publisher Penguin as “unflinchingly honest”, Raynor Winn’s book charts her 630-mile journey along the South West Coast Path with her terminally ill husband, Moth, after losing their home in Wales. But Hadjimatheou’s “original scoop” revealed a series of damaging allegations, including claims she had defrauded her former employer.

Sky’s new film dives back into the “year’s biggest literary controversy”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. It’s an “excellent documentary for students of journalism”, as we learn Hadjimatheou’s exposé began with a tip-off “about a book she had never read” – an email that led to her beginning the painstaking process of “finding witnesses, checking sources and consulting experts”.

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The gripping film includes a “wealth of new details”, weaving together a “complex story of alleged theft and deception dating back decades”, said Julia Raeside in The i Paper. “Handsome drone shots” transport viewers to the coast and “conjure the romance of Winn’s tale” – a “wholesome yarn spun perfectly into a tapestry of pure hope and triumph over adversity”. But over the next two hours, Hadjimatheou meets former friends and colleagues of the couple, who accuse them of leaving a “trail of emotional destruction”.

Among the biggest revelations is a letter purportedly written by Winn in which she admits to stealing money from her relatives. Raynor and Moth, whose real names are Sally and Tim Walker, declined to take part in the documentary and dismissed the allegations. “I did not steal from family, as others can confirm. Nor have I confessed to doing so and I did not write a letter suggesting that I did,” Raynor said in a statement, adding that the film was part of a “false narrative”.

“How much does any of this matter?” said Midgley in The Times. “If people enjoyed the book, why not let them be, you may say.” But it’s “galling” to see somebody painting themselves as the victim “when they face claims that they have created quite a few victims of their own”.

When Hadjimatheou’s investigation first broke, “The Salt Path” flew back to the top of the bestseller list. And it’s likely the same will happen following this blistering documentary. “Controversy sells.”