Saltlines: Author Raynor Winn collaborates with Gigspanner Big Band

A celebration of the South West Coast Path in words and music

“630 uninterrupted miles of coastline, crossing wild headlands with the calls of oystercatchers and the smell of salt laden air ever present.” The South West Coast Path (SWCP) is thus described by Raynor Winn, who walked every single mile with her husband Moth in 2013.

Faced with homelessness after a business deal turned sour, they took off with just a few belongings and a tent. Their journey was the subject of The Salt Path, Raynor’s best-selling memoir, published in 2018; its sequel, The Wild Silence, explored what happened before and after. Together they have sold over a million copies worldwide, the author praised for her lyrical descriptions of the environment and her frank depiction of the reality of homelessness.

One reader who was captivated by The Salt Path was Deborah Knight, agent and manager of The Gigspanner Big Band - a collective of high-profile names on the folk-roots scene, including Steeleye Span fiddle player Peter Knight and Bellowhead melodeonist John Spiers. While on the SWCP herself, it occurred to Deborah that such a well-trodden trail must hold many more stories of love, loss and the natural world – and that these might be found in the traditional songs and tunes handed down through generations and logged by Victorian song collectors such as Cecil Sharp.

This seed of an idea has developed into an exciting collaboration between author and band. Saltlines travels the length of the coast path in July, starting in Somerset and ending in Dorset, taking in three Cornwall venues on the way: St Endellion Church, Princess Pavilion in Falmouth and the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno. Folk songs chosen for their resonance will be interspersed with Raynor’s words, written especially for the occasion. about it for five minutes, then said yes, absolutely yes,” she laughs. “How could I turn down the chance to work with names that light up the folk music world? I followed them, and they in turn were inspired by my book, so it’s a two-way collaboration.”

However, “this is not The Salt Path set to music”. While Raynor will draw upon her own experiences of the coast path, hers will be just one of many stories to be told during the evening. “Like the songs, the words will reflect the path and the South West, our history and traditions - some that still exist, others that are slipping away - a feeling of our past and present,” she explains.

“It has been a revelation, liberating even, for me to be able to concentrate my thoughts and words into a shorter form. Also, while The Salt Path was a personal reflection on my own life, it’s been a pleasure to look beyond that and see the path in an external way, finding its essence within these stories.

“When we’re walking, we tend to be focused on our own lives and thoughts. If you give yourself the time to look a little deeper into what makes an area work, these stories are there to be gathered - in historical records or simply from the people you meet. They are all around us.”

Raynor is already a seasoned face on the literary festival circuit, but Saltlines represents a different experience – more performative, and with a tour bus thrown in. “It’s an entirely new avenue for me,” she admits. “I’ve never had anything to do with music before, and I’m just going with the flow. With such an incredibly talented group of musicians, I don’t think anything can go wrong.”

At the same time as losing their home and livelihood, Moth was diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. An unexpected outcome of the SWCP pilgrimage was that the intense daily exercise staved off the degenerative aspects of his condition. Today, the couple live on a farm near Polruan, where they are working to restore an orchard using the principles of Moth’s degree in sustainable horticulture. They are also still walking, and recently completed a trek from the north of Scotland to their home, a distance of over 1,000 miles – this will form the basis of Raynor’s third book, due out in September.

The success of The Salt Path was equally unexpected. It was written as an aidememoire for Moth, a record of their monumental experience, but has become a worldwide phenomenon and opened up a new career for Raynor, who has been asked to represent organisations from the South West Coast Path Association (for whom she is an ambassador) and the homeless charity Emmaus.

Does she ever pinch herself? “Every single day. A few years ago, I could never have imagined myself writing my thoughts down at all, let alone being approached by such big names to go on tour. It’s quite surreal.

“But I’ve learned over the past few years that I can put a few words together, and I hope that by doing so with an incredible bunch of musicians, we can give people something really memorable.” l Saltlines visits St Endellion Church on July 10, Princess Pavilion in Falmouth on July 12 and the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno on July 16.