The story of the moment in travel/nature writing is that The Salt Path, a bestselling book recently turned into a film, was “spun from lies, deceit and desperation”. That quote’s from the standfirst at the front of The Observer yesterday, which, over four pages, published the results of an investigation by the journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou into claims made in the book.

In The Salt Path, Raynor Winn (whose real name, it turns out, is Sally Walker) tells how, days after she learned that her husband, Moth (Tim Walker), was terminally ill, they lost their home and livelihood as a result of being conned by a friend. With nothing left and little time, they decided on impulse to walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path and — as the blurb on the paperback has it — “discovered a new, liberating existence”. This account, Hadjimatheou reports, “has elements of truth, but it also misrepresents who [the couple] were, how they started out on their journey and the financial circumstances that provided the backdrop”. Winn/Walker, who presents herself as a victim, has been accused of stealing £64,000 while working as a bookkeeper.

In a column in The Observer, the author and critic Erica Wagner says that “to some extent, all narratives are constructed,” but that “When our sympathy is sought, we deserve the truth. Stories of survival that claim to be true and play on our desire to have faith bear a weight of responsibility to the reader…”

Having read and recommended The Salt Path and The Wild Silence, and enthusiastically reviewed Landlines, this professional sceptic is now mulling over how readily he joined the faithful.