The Salt Path: A Memoir

4.4 | 38,927 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 01-11-2025

Top reviews from the United States

Larry Mastin

The world through the eyes of a homeless walker

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024

Good books show their value by showing you the world through new eyes. This is one of those books. This book is about a long walk, but not in the adventure genre, like Colin Fletcher's "The Man Who Walked Through Time", or "Wild", by Cheryl Strayed. Raynor Winn and her husband Moth are a middle aged English couple who have just lost their home, their savings, and, for Moth, his future. After Moth is diagnosed with terminal CBD, they take their few possessions and walk the Coastal Path in Cornwall. The book opens your eyes to modern day homelessness and how one couple made the most of their meager resources. The author's poetic writing style brings out the beauty of the walk, the pathos of their situation, and the perceptions of those they meet to their situation.

Wayne A. Smith

Poignant

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2020

I enjoyed the Salt Path, once I got over some of the much less than ideal decision making Ray and Moth Winn make in their lives and on their journey.

This is the story of two solidly middle-class Britons who become homeless after losing their farm and Inn business. Moth, Ray's husband, has just learned he is terminally ill with cancer. Litterly huddled under their stairs as the foreclosure agents are at the door, the couple decides to walk and camp England's 600 plus miles of trail known as the South West Coast Path.

This is a love story, a story of overcoming adversity, a story of creating a goal and pursuing it and of simple survival. With second hand gear, often not enough food and the strains and blisters that accompany fifty-somethings (one of them terminally ill) undertaking unaccostumed physical exertions, the Winns set out to best themselves and put their situation behind them - one foot at a time.

I have to agree with many of the reviewers who underscored bad decision making that brought the Winns to their financial collapse and made harder their outdoor sojourn through south western England. Even accepting that their bad business acumen and inconceivably incompetent interactions with the court system, they do make decisions (or fail to make decisions) that leave the reader wondering, "why didn't you cancel your auto billing," "why don't you just buy some sun screen for your blistered nose (or a hat)," "why buy fudge when you are out of food?"

It is a book that my wife and I both enjoyed for the loving relationship of the hikers and their toils and travails along the Salt Path.

Patricia Heiland Baxter

Amazing resilience

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024

Enjoyed every minute of the read. Powerful couple.

HeidiML

Heartfelt, Tender, Powerful, Five-Star Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024

This book touched my heart. It is so beautifully written that I felt like I was with "Ray" and "Moth" every step and every vista along the way. I seemed to have stumbled across it when I was looking for ocean-oriented read and what a lovely surprise. I had never heard of Rayor Winn yet now I feel almost like I've known her forever. I am an avid reader and memoir writer and can be picky about writing. Her book is a gift. I had to savor it and I even reread the last few pages again after I finished. I just ordered "The Wild Silence." Highly recommended.

Dirty Hands Art Workshop

Feels like reading a journal, not necessarily in a good way…

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2023

Allow me to state for the record that what Winn and her husband went through that led them to the path was horrible. There, now for my honest thoughts on the book. It reads like a journal she kept for herself. Hear me out: so much beautiful landscape to detail but I feel her descriptions lacked the details to actually paint the vibrancy of the places they traveled. She nailed the descriptions of hunger and uncleanliness so well but I would have liked to see a similar passion for the places and the long hours spent in the monotony of walking. I hate to say it, I also feel like the booked lacked soul. She touches on feelings, mortality, death, loneliness but I feel like she never truly overturned the stone and became vulnerable to us. SPOILR ALERT: I read to the end to find out Moth’s fate, Winn alluded to in a single line but never a concrete closure. I get the illness was terminal, but what more transpired in between the Path and his ultimate end? How did Winn cope? Or, how is she coping? Moth was such a pivotal person and I was drawn to him. I wanted to feel the pain of reading he had passed or perhaps the joy of knowing he was still giving hell to the trails. Either way, you’ll read the book or you won’t. Perhaps you’ll love it. But now you’ve got my two cents.

roundheadslovene

I could feel the cold and the wet and the wind.....

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2021

In the fine tradition of Brit tramping memoirs. But without a parachute.
I really dropped into the first 90 pp of this, was OK with the next part, and was glad she had a positive story to tell at the end. Their life rescued, all the good things happening to them in a short time. Karma? Good luck? Their efforts? Yes.
Yep, sometimes the best way to deal with setbacks (even as huge as theirs) is to just slog on. This is mostly a record of slogging on - not of enjoying the scenery and the sites. Not of worrying endlessly about what they would do in the long run. The important thing was putting one foot in front of the other, that moment.
And, I may later read some Armitage (I can't believe that that poet performer is the Poet Laureate of England!), despite his tramp being so different than theirs on every level, and Wallington's "Boogie".
Plus, how cool a name is "Moth"!!!????
I am looking forward to reading the continuation of their story, "The Wild Silence" - and hope Winn explains the source of her husband's name, or nickname.
Good Nature read, but also a good story of perseverance. I tore through it.

Bonnie

Great Memoir of the Cornwall Path

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024

Being a lover of all things Cornwall, and curious about hiking the South West Coast Path, this book was a joy! I learned a lot, good & bad, about adventures along the path and the power of human resilience.

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