{"id":5231,"date":"2020-09-15T13:30:34","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T12:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodvale.com\/?p=5231"},"modified":"2020-09-15T13:30:34","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T12:30:34","slug":"the-wild-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/the-wild-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wild Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life after The Salt Path<\/em>. Jess Thompson<\/strong> talks to best selling author Raynor Winn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Raynor Winn\u2019s The Salt Path<\/em> has become a publishing phenomenon since it was released in early 2018. Her memoir of how she and husband, Moth became homeless\u2014quickly followed by him being diagnosed with a debilitating neurological disease\u2014was a Sunday Times top ten best-seller for more than 54 weeks, has been translated in 14 languages and optioned by a film company. Furthermore, people\u2019s strength of feeling for her story has meant that at the 60 talks and literary festivals she\u2019s attended (generally with Moth quietly sitting in the audience), tickets have sold out within days of going on sale.
\nSo, to say there was a weight of expectation riding on her follow-up book, The Wild Silence<\/em> might be putting it mildly.
\n\u201cIt was a completely different experience to write,\u201d Raynor tells me, her voice soft and slightly hesitant when she calls me from her new home in Cornwall. We\u2019d tried to Zoom but her phone was too old and cracked to have the capability\u2014more of which later.
\n\u201cThe Salt Path had its own narrative arc, and I just needed to retrace it. I had Paddy Dillon\u2019s guide to the South West coast path, with Moth\u2019s pencilled notes in the margin, and everything else just followed.
\n\u201cLast year, I started writing the sequel then suddenly thought, this is so shallow and it\u2019s not saying what I want it to say. I decided that if I just did the obvious thing and wrote a follow-up then I wouldn\u2019t be doing what I needed to do for myself. So I left it for ages, then came back to it with only four months before the deadline to hand it in. The whole thing, from start to finish\u2026 It was quite tricky.\u201d She laughs. \u201cBut then I realised that I couldn\u2019t think about who was going to read it. I had to put myself back into the framework; into the mindset I\u2019d had when I wrote The Salt Path. Because it was only then that I could actually say what needed to be said\u2014namely about the natural environment and our connection to it.\u201d
\nThe Wild Silence is indeed a very different book to its precursor. It\u2019s a more fractured narrative, oscillating between childhood memories\u2014many of which show how and why Raynor\u2019s developed such a deep connection with the land\u2014and recalling events which happened after finishing the walk. \u201cI realised that I had to first go backwards, in order to explain what I was trying to say.\u201d
\nOf course, few who\u2019ve read The Salt Path can fail to have been moved by the love story of Raynor and Moth; and it\u2019s equally heart-warming to read about how it all began when they met as teenagers, Moth\u2019s hair \u201changing in Celtic plaits, his old RAF coat flapping behind him.\u201d He was already an activist, \u201cmagnetically drawn to the countryside, to the wilderness\u201d and their first adventure involved a trip to Scotland, where their temporary campsite was washed away by a ferocious storm. What\u2019s totally unexpected, however, is to read about the animosity her parents felt towards him, rejecting him, she writes, \u201cwith a venom and ferocity which wiped out every vision I had of what my family was.\u201d
\nWhen I say this must have been a great sadness, she pauses. \u201cThey eventually came to terms with the fact that Moth was my choice, but I don\u2019t think they were ever fully reconciled to the idea that I\u2019d made the right one. Despite the fact that he remains the most extraordinary person I\u2019ve ever met. So yes, it was one of the greatest sadnesses; because I\u2019ve always wanted to keep everyone I\u2019ve ever loved close in my bubble\u2014as everyone does. I just had to have two bubbles.\u201d
\nWriting with such honestly is a trademark of her style and one of the reasons that people write to her from all over the world, telling her their own stories: \u201csome extraordinary, often personal, sometimes awful ones.
\n\u201cTo start with I was a little bit shocked, but then I began to realise that this was the beauty of what I\u2019d done in writing The Salt Path\u2014that it had connected people who felt they had no-one to connect with, creating a sense of a mutual humanity.\u201d
\nStill, I ask, does she worry about having written about her parents\u2019 feelings? \u201cEven now I feel it\u2019s a bit of dilemma. But at the same time it\u2019s the truth of the way it was, so I don\u2019t think it was something that would have come as a surprise to them.\u201d
\nThe poignancy of her reflections create a quiet sadness at the beginning of the book, encapsulated by the Cornish word \u2018hireth\u2019 which marks an early chapter. \u201cThere\u2019s also hiraeth in Welsh, but there doesn\u2019t seem to be an English term for it. It\u2019s a longing for something that\u2019s lost: for a home that\u2019s no longer there; for something we never had; the fact that it\u2019s never been in our lives. I think I was trying to express this sense of disconnection, of not feeling any attachment to my roots, my life\u2014for everything had been stripped away from it.\u201d
\n\u201cExcept Moth,\u201d I say with relief\u2014the state of his health having been my very first question. And indeed, the brilliant news is that his condition hasn\u2019t markedly deteriorated in the last ten months. \u201cHe did have a downturn over winter, which wasn\u2019t good, but we\u2019ve tried to be a lot more active during spring and summer this year and his health\u2019s picked up again.\u201d
\nPart of the reason for this was the extraordinary opportunity of revitalising an overused farm, which Raynor and Moth were offered to rent by a man who\u2019d read The Salt Path and loved it.
\nSet in 120 acres of a secluded valley that looks down to a creek, it includes 20 acres of orchard that\u2019s now beginning to flourish as a result of the couple\u2019s more sympathetic approach to land management. \u201cIt\u2019s a brilliant use of the degree Moth did at the Eden Project after we finished the walk,\u201d Raynor says, with obvious pride. \u201cAnd in treating the land with respect, it\u2019s extraordinary how quickly the biodiversity has exploded. But it also means that, finally, after the years that have passed, we\u2019ve found our peaceful place.\u201d
\nI ask her, somewhat nervously, whether the farmhouse is now habitable\u2014for when they moved in it had been vandalised, with glue in the locks and a cacophony of mice living in the attic. \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a few rodents,\u201d she says cheerfully, \u201cbut at least it\u2019s now got a bit of paint on the walls\u2014and it\u2019s dry!\u201d
\nWhen we discuss the apples, with which they\u2019re planning to make their first batches of cider this year, I suggest that they could market it as Salt Path Cider; and in so doing amass the fortune that not even her colossal book sales have created to date. \u201cBut it might taste awful,\u201d she says. \u201cAlthough I guess everyone might buy a trial bottle.\u201d
\nSadly, I suspect she\u2019s not going to follow me up on my suggestion, just like her previous \u201cOh\u2026 okay\u201d expressing her doubt about my idea that she should try and use her fame to wrangle a free phone to replace the eight-year-old, second-hand one her daughter kindly passed on. In fact she\u2019s distinctly embarrassed by the idea. \u201cFamous? Me? Really? Well, if I am, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s changed me in the slightest. I still get up, put the kettle on, let the dog out and think, okay, what am I going to do today? The only real thing that\u2019s changed is that when the electric bill comes through the door it just makes me smile, because I know I can actually pay it.\u201d
\nAnd of course the success of her book has, crucially, reunited her and Moth with the land\u2014which is where she believes he thrives. In the last part of The Wild Silence<\/em> they go on another walking trip, this time having Paddy guide them through Iceland. \u201cIt was a really tough trail, and yet it seems that the tougher the challenge, the better the effect on Moth,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAfter the first few days he was starting to feel strength and co-ordination return to his body; things that aren\u2019t supposed to happen with his illness. We walked through miles of ash fields and dead lava flows\u2014through an alien landscape that felt like a movie set in space; a land at its very beginning where the volcanic eruptions had just ended and the earth was starting to rejuvenate\u2014just like Moth\u2019s wellbeing.
\n\u201cI do feel we\u2019ve stumbled upon something,\u201d she says. \u201cSome doctors say it\u2019s Moth\u2019s own version of \u2018something\u2019; others point to the restricted diet or endurance training he experienced during our days on the path. Personally, I\u2019m still looking for what the answer is; partly because CBD is still so under-researched.
\n\u201cOne of the things I\u2019m particularly fascinated by is that most plants, to some degree or other, emit something called a secondary metabolite\u2014it\u2019s like a chemical that it puts out into the air, and is the thing that you see as a blue haze on a hot summer\u2019s day when you look across a forest or woodland. Plants use it to protect themselves: from the heat, predators, pests or disease.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s only been a small amount of research carried out, but it\u2019s been found that the human body reacts positively to these chemicals, so it\u2019s something I\u2019m really interested in. For, just like the Japanese believe that the practice of forest bathing has the power to counter illness, I believe that Moth interacting with nature has tangible physical benefits.\u201d
\nWhen I ask what their next trip will be, she gives very little away, but acknowledges that it will be within the British Isles and once again guided by Paddy. I wonder if they\u2019ve finally met, and she\u2019s delighted to say yes. \u201cI was at an event in the Lake District and spotted him in the audience. I thought, I know that face, so we got him up on stage, and he was so lovely. Absolutely your genuine sincere man-of-the-hills sort of person that, from reading the guide book, we\u2019d thought he\u2019d be.\u201d
\nWhen I ask what\u2019s been the highlight of 2020 she guiltily proposes, \u201cLockdown?\u201d before giving an alternate suggestion. We discuss that she\u2019s not alone in thinking it. \u201cHorrible as it has been for so many people, it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for me; giving me these quiet moments to reconnect with myself. And it\u2019s meant that it\u2019s been just me and Moth; which allows me to be my normal self\u2014not really talking to anybody but him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life after The Salt Path. Jess Thompson talks to best selling author Raynor Winn Raynor Winn\u2019s The Salt Path has become a publishing phenomenon since it was released in early 2018. Her memoir of how she and husband, Moth became homeless\u2014quickly followed by him being diagnosed with a debilitating neurological disease\u2014was a Sunday Times top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-jess-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}