The Salt Path author Raynor Winn hits out at claims towards book and pulls out of tour

Instead, The Observer claims that they lost it because they were unable to repay a loan of £100,000, which they had borrowed to repay £64,000 that Winn had been accused of stealing from her previous employer.

The report also claimed that Winn and her husband owned property in the south-west of France, which was not in a habitable state, but which locals had said they had camped on in the past. This was contrasted with the couple having nowhere to go after they lost their home.

The Observer's piece also said that multiple medical experts were sceptical about Moth having corticobasal degeneration (CBD), given his long survival after diagnosis, his lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse any symptoms.

Now, Winn has posted a statement on her website to address these claims, calling them "grotesquely unfair" and "highly misleading".

On the allegation that Winn embezzled money from her former employer, Martin Hemmings, Winn has said that the dispute referred to in the article is not the one mentioned in the start of the book and seen at the start of the film, with that being a separate matter.

Winn claimed that the dispute with Hemmings did not lead to her and her husband losing their home, and while she apologised for "any mistakes I made during the years in that office", she noted that she was "not charged" and did not face "criminal sanctions" after Hemmings made "an allegation against me".

"I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened," she said.

Winn reiterated the story of how she and Moth lost their home, claiming it is still the same as written in the book.

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On the property in France, Winn said it is "an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch, on the boundary of a family member's property".

She said that living there "would be impossible" and that a local agent advised that it was "virtually worthless" and not worth marketing or selling it in 2013.

Winn also said the couple have no outstanding debts, as was suggested in the article, and hit back at the suggestion they were "hiding behind pseudonyms" - saying that Winn is her maiden name and the first names she uses for herself and Moth are nicknames used by themselves and by friends.

Regarding Moth's health, Winn shared photographs of documents appearing to show medical experts referring to Moth's diagnosis.

She said that "I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations", and refuted any suggestion that his condition had been "made up" entirely.

Winn's post came after she pulled out of the Saltlines tour, which is described as a "prose and music collaboration". She was appearing alongside a folk band, Gigspanner Big Band, which is set to continue on.

Refunds have been given to some of the tour's customers, but a spokesperson for The Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, the next venue, said that the "vast majority of the audience have chosen to retain their tickets".

The Salt Path was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jacob Isaacs, which was released in UK cinemas earlier this year.

The Salt Path was released in UK cinemas on Friday 30th May.

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