Can memoirs ever tell the whole truth?

By Emily Hay, Research Assistant in Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow
Craig Lamont, Senior Lecturer in Scottish Studies, University of Glasgow

In July 2025 a literary scandal erupted when The Observer journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou claimed that Raynor Winn, author of the award-winning memoir The Salt Path, had omitted significant facts and invented key parts of her story. This much-loved account of Winn’s transformative and healing coastal walk with her terminally ill husband after they lost their home, had recently been made into a film.

In her article Hadjimatheou maintained that the details of how Winn and her husband lost their home and…

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