AN author has spoken of the therapeutic quality of the South West’s wilderness as she welcomes a film (starring Gillian Anderson) of her and her husband’s hiking odyssey which is launched UK wide today (Friday, May 30).

The film, The Salt Path, is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Raynor Winn which relates the emotional story of their long-distance coastal walk.

Raynor (Ray) and Moth Winn, of Cornwall, walked the the 630-km South West Coast Path at the lowest point in their lives – after he received a life-limiting health diagnosis and they were evicted from their home after a financial a dispute.

They took the decision to walk the infamously rollercoaster coast path, camping along the way over a year – because they had ‘nothing to go back home to or for’.

This was a particularly difficult challenge for them, not only because of the lengthy and hilly cliff terrain but also because Moth had just been told he had a terminal condition, leaving him at times unable to move properly.

Against all the odds, however, the extreme physical exertions seemed to help Moth. In the film, Jason Isaacs who plays Moth (with Gillian Anderson who plays Ray) is seen gradually getting more mobile with his heavy rucksack.

He sometimes could not get out of his sleeping bag or tent or even eat properly without Ray’s help. However, on one dramatic night he even rescues their tent from the waves as the tide comes in higher than they expected during a night spent on the beach. The walk, it turned out, helped him regain his mobility.

Ray said the real star of the film was the scenery: “The South West Coast Path is an amazing setting – we have fantastic actors playing the title roles, but the real star is the route with the dramatic cliffs and the ever-present sea and horizon.

“I’ve written about landscape – such as the coast to coast walk in the North East – and how important it is to me and my wellbeing so I have seen a variety across the country. The South West Coast Path is several landscapes rolled into one route and we had the sea as a constant ‘companion’ throughout our walk.

“The north coast part of our walk was the most extreme and Moth coped with it all and seemed to benefit, as we both did.”

She said the film captured the essence of the themes of the book including that of a journey both as a ‘road trip’ and within their relationship, coming to terms with their situation and the sense of space and landscape and how it all interacted with them.

“There’s little drama, but it is a tale of how, after our lives fell apart, we learned to stand up again, by being together alone and seeing each other as people. Our surroundings played a major part in this healing.”

The Salt Path can be seen at Plymouth Arts Cinema: https://plymouthartscinema.org/whats-on/the-salt-path-12a/