Raynor Winn, PSPA volunteer Florence and team from St Austell Brewery at the Wellington Boscastle

Hi Raynor Winn, thank you for talking to me today! How has the last month been? I bet you’re exhausted since The Salt Path film came out!

Yes, it’s been a long campaign trail!

What is it like being back in Boscastle?

I was just thinking as I drove down (the hill into Boscastle) that I’ve never been back. I remember that day coming to Boscastle (on their original walk). It was raining, and the laces had broken on my boots. I can remember going into the outdoor shop and buying some red boot laces. So, some good memories of that bit – it was hot sunshine as we left. We camped by the side of the path up the hill where we met an old lady who said she’d been going up there to camp twice a year for a long time, something like 40 years.

Have you done much camping since? Anything different in your set up?

Well, we camped across Iceland, which was very cold. When we did the Cape Wrath Trail, where you can’t camp in the same way as you have to have so much more kit. We did camp when we walked back down to Cornwall from Scotland (documented in Landlines published in 2023). Our sleeping bags are much thicker now!

Gillian-Anderson-and-Jason-Isaacs-as-Raynor-and-Moth-Winn-In-The-Salt-Path-film-Credit-Steve-Tanner-Black-Bear-Credit_-Steve-Tanner-_-Black-Bear-Whitsand-Bay — Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and Moth Winn-Credit Steve Tanner Black Bear

Let’s talk about The Salt Path film? I know you’re not credited beyond writing the books, so how much were you able to be involved with the direction of the film, or did you have to just hand over your work and hope it did it justice?

In the early days I was involved with the outlining of the script and how the logistics of the path worked, and us, our relationship with the path. When it got handed over to the director, I had to let go of it, really. Like it was a child going off to school.

Do you think the film did your book justice?

Yeah, I’m happy with it. An adaptation is always going to be different, and is always going to miss bits and highlight other bits. So obviously, there were some of my favourite characters and scenes that meant so much to me that there just wasn’t room for. But they’ve captured the real essence of a relationship between two people and the path, which was never going to be easy.

In her wider conversation with the audience, Raynor also noted that this was director Marianne Elliott’s first film, although she is a big name in theatre. Elliott came to Cornwall to walk some of the path with Raynor, where Elliott set out her vision and explained how she felt it should be sparse in dialogue and let the landscape talk.

How did it feel to see yourself on the big screen, but through someone else’s eyes – a new fictionalised version, and then through the eyes of the audience watching?

That was quite weird! The first time we saw the film complete was at a full screening. It was emotional because I hadn’t revisited some of the emotions for a long time. There were things that I had put away and moved on from. So to watch that film, it put me straight back under the stairs with the bangs at the door and and back in all those moments that maybe weren’t that easy. So yes, it’s really strange to see “you”, well, some version of me, anyway, on the screen.

Gillian Anderson Salt Path credit Steve Tanner Black Bear — Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in The Salt Path film credit Steve Tanner Black Bear

Did you spend a lot of time with Gillian Anderson prepping for the role?

We spent a whole day together working on parts of the script and how we were emotionally in those times. And obviously she just picked up lots of my facial expressions during that time. Because when you see somebody reflecting you, it’s never what you think, is it? Now it’s got to the point where I look in the mirror, I’m quite disappointed to not see Gillian Anderson!

Was there anything you didn’t like about the film?

Initially, when I first saw some of the scenes they weren’t quite finished. And anyone who sees the film will know that in the scene on The Rumps with the rabbits, they are not wild rabbits, right? Even though they’re brown, they are quite fluffy and tame. When I first saw it, they were just fresh out of Pets at Home, and the recolouring had not yet been done, so they were quite white and spotty! And obviously, I then learned all about film colouring which comes later. So that was quite interesting, a little lesson in how films were actually made.

When I interviewed Poppy, the location manager, she was telling me about having to film two or three different scenes in one location.

That’s the constraints of a low budget film. We couldn’t use all of the locations that we would have loved to have seen. The cost of getting everyone around means it had to be confined geographically. You’ve still got a huge crew, plus all the catering vans and more to move around. So, for example, The Valley of the Rocks, or Holywell beach, above, has to become four or five different locations. But it’s fantastic that our coastline allows for that; that it is so varied even in one spot that it was possible.

As a viewer, I was a bit frustrated that you never got to Land’s End, because that’s such a big thing in the book.

They were due to film at Land’s End but I think the weather stopped it. The worst storm of the entire summer closed in on their allocated two days to film, and they didn’t have the time to come back again. But again, that’s the constraints of a low budget film.

It was a shame that so much of that path wasn’t seen though. Maybe if we had been working with five times the budget!

What about the concept of homelessness? Did you feel it was portrayed how you wanted it to be?

I think they caught it, but maybe not as strongly as I felt it. It was such a raw, visceral experience for us which could have been the whole film really, to be honest. But they wanted it to be so much more than that; they wanted it to be about a relationship, us as a couple, and with the path.

And ultimately, I guess, they want people to come to watch it, not just “oh, that’s just a worthy film”. So yes, they caught a little of the essence of homelessness by creating one character, who isn’t in the book, to represent all the references. The urban homelessness, the really quite frightening, aggressive elements of that, and I think she represents that well.

Raynor Winn new book – On Winter Hill – is coming out! That’s exciting. Can you tell us more about that?

Yes, it has just been announced (Raynor Winn’s new book On Winter Hill will be published by Penguin in October 2025).

I understand you left Cornwall for Yorkshire and the Lake District. What was that like? Did you use a specific guide?

It’s about my walk of the Coast to Coast Walk, starting in Yorkshire and ending in the Lake District, last winter, on my own.

I actually used the Cicerone Guide; I’m so used to them and now they come with a wonderful little map book as well. I ended up abandoning the guide book, as I was walking it backwards (to the west) so I just used the map.

So you went east to west? Ending in the Lake District? Why did you choose that route?

I think it’s because everything draws me to the West Coast. So the idea of finishing there just seemed to me to make more sense, because it felt like I was going home.

And were you on your own for this? Did you camp, or stay inside?

No, I didn’t camp for this one, because it was winter, and some days I was in amazing snow in -10C. But I was on my own. Maybe not my best choice, but there’s a reason it had to be winter, which you’ll find out when you read the book!

How did this walk come about? I know you’ve done other walks since the coast path, but why that particular crossing walk rather than one that circumnavigates?

When I first met Moth, I was a teenager. It was a long time ago, and I even now I can remember sitting in the college canteen having our very first conversation. The Coast to Coast walk had just been designated as a walk, you know, and Wainwright’s book had just appeared, and I can remember Moth talking about it. He was so excited, saying this will be a fantastic thing to do. I really want to do this thing. So our very first conversation was straight into this. We really wanted to do it throughout our life together; it was something we were always going to do together, but then a downturn in his health meant we didn’t do it. So I ended up doing it alone.

How long did it take you?

The walk took around two weeks. I had some issues, like the Vale of Mowbray was so flooded, I ended up just lost in some endless flood of farmland, and in trouble with farmers on quad bikes so I had to skip that bit. So it’s not totally finished. Further on, the snow came in, when I was in the Lake District.

As I came out of Yorkshire, I could see the snow in the Lake District, where a purple bank of cloud was just starting to build behind the hills. Then it got that misty white edge where you can see it’s really snowing. I had just reached Hawes Water and it just dumped snow to a point where there was no way over. So I had to skip that bit too, and go down through the Central Lakes, where there was no snow. So I probably missed about three days, but that’s the perils of winter.

And what about the Cornish coast path? Any revisited favourite parts?

I’ve always said the granite coast at Land’s End. You know, my favourite list still will always stand. That stretch from St Ives round to Porthcurno is always magical. Now we don’t live so far away from the Lizard. So the Lizard in the spring. We were so lucky to be there when the flowers were out on the heathlands towards the south western point of the lizard. And it was spectacular to see those ground meadows.

Lizard Point Lighthouse holiday rental Cornwall Hideaways — Lizard Point Lighthouse image credit Cornwall Hideaways

Oh, I bet that was lovely.

It was beautiful. Absolutely stunning. It’s different every time we visit. Because you bring yourself to the path, and you take from it whatever you’re open to taking from it at that moment in time. So, yes, it’s different every time I’m there. Like, coming back to Boscastle. It is a tough stretch here, which I’d forgotten until I came down into the village.

And how is Moth? The event today is of course to raise money for the PSPA charity, which must be close to your heart.

He was in the best health that he’s been in years, but last was a really tough year, and he had a difficult time. But he’s been trying really hard to get back to where he wants to be, and he’s in a much better place now than he was a year ago, for sure.

The PSPA charity is the one that oversees anything to do with helping people with CBD (Corticobasal Degeneration, which Moth has) [and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)].

They have support groups like the one in Devon and Cornwall, and that’s really helpful for people who live with these conditions to just share experience with other people, and for the families that are involved. It’s good to share and not have to explain yourself, or the feeling, or emotion behind all the physical feelings.

Raynor Winn St Austell Brewery June 2025 Muddy Stilettos CornwallEvents - The Salt Path Raynor Winn Talk- The Wellington Boscastle DSC09311 17-06-25

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PSPA is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the lives of everyone affected by Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD). It provides information and support to help families live as well as possible with PSP and CBD, while also funding research and raising awareness of both conditions.

In both Devon and Cornwall, there is a monthly group that meets to support those affected by the conditions. For more information, please visit pspassociation.org.uk.

The newly renovated Chart Room is for hire at The Wellington, Boscastle.

Raynor Winn’s new book, On Winter Hill, is released in October 2025 and The Salt Path film is out now.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

Muddy Meets: Raynor Winn, author

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