BOOKS, RADIO AND TV
Raynor and Moth’s heartfelt story of hope and perseverance continues
What to read and watch this month.
BOOK
THE WILD SILENCE
How could there be a follow-up? The Salt Path, published in 2018, was the radiant, soaring, heartstringtugging story of what Winn and her husband Moth, who has an incurable illness, had been told would be their final journey together – an arduous trek along the South West Coast Path when they had nothing more to lose.
Sometimes life has other ideas. The Wild Silence sees the couple ensconced in a Cornish village. Moth is still unwell but determinedly studying for a degree, while Winn, feeling lost, trusting no one and plagued with self-doubt, finally discovers her gift as a writer. Then an amazing new opportunity comes their way.
Moving back and forth in time, Winn reveals the unexpected way her smashhit debut came to be published, while revisiting her nature-filled childhood in a tenanted estate cottage on a farm. She recalls how she met and married her college sweetheart, and takes us on their many carefree wild-camping adventures around Britain. Winn’s soul-baring honesty and beautifully remembered, touching conversations will take your breath away.
Ultimately, this gorgeous book is about love – for a person (“my wild unity”) and for the land (“the deep humming background to my very being”) – and hope. Faced with Moth slipping away
“like the sea mist in the heat of the sun”, Winn refuses to give up on him.
Ben Hoare, author and naturalist