The owner of a Cornish beach café has said she felt “sick” reading the portrayal of what she believes to be her business in Raynor Winn’s controversial memoir, The Salt Path.
Joanna Cocking, 51, was shocked to discover that the person in charge of the small eatery, her mother, was seemingly depicted as a bully by the author.
Speaking to The Observer, she said: “When I got sent the bit of the book that we were in, I just felt sick. I just wanted to write to the publisher and say: ‘You can’t write this.’”
Raynor Winn’s best-selling memoir follows the author and her husband , Moth, as they embark on a gruelling 630-mile trek along the South West Coast Path, prompted by a series of personal catastrophes.
The book, presented by the author as a true story, has come under huge scrutiny after reports by The Observer exposed apparent inconsistencies in the narrative last month.
Although Cocking’s Porthmellin café was not identified by name in The Salt Path, there is only one such establishment in Mullion Cove.
Winn described how “a man in his twenties waited tables, cleared tables, politely dealt with grumpy customers, cut cakes, [and] swept the floor”.
She wrote that an angry owner then arrived, asking the employee: “‘What the f*** do you think you’re doing? There’s two tables out there uncleared. What do I pay you for? You’re f***ing lazy.’”
In Winn’s account, the waiter then gave her and her husband a free panini each before handing in his resignation, locking eyes with the author as he posted his key to the café through the letterbox.
Cocking said: “When I read that, I was thinking: ‘That can’t be us.’ I was absolutely mortified. She never named the café but she might as well have because there is only one café in this cove.”
The business owner continued: “No one could sweep the floor [in the café] because it’s been carpeted for years. My mum, who owned it, was a typical old Cornish woman and she never swore or spoke like that.
“She was there all day and no way would mum let a youngster lock up.”
The 51-year-old said that, although there had been a number of male waiters at the establishment over the years, nobody had ever walked out. The door to the café has no letterbox and they have never served paninis.
“I don’t think she ever came to our café, I really don’t,” Cocking said.
The Independent has contacted Winn’s representatives for comment.
Last month, The Observer published an investigation that raised a number of doubts about the truth behind Winn’s story. It was claimed that large portions of the book could have been embellished, as well as that the central premise of hardship and betrayal could have been built on a fiction of its own.
The investigation claimed that the book misrepresented how the couple lost their home, which, according to Winn, was due to a bad business investment.
However, The Observer reported that the couple lost the property after Winn allegedly defrauded her employer of £64,000 in 2008, which she apparently attempted to repay by taking out a loan from a relative.
In a statement provided to The Independent, Winn said at the time: “[The] Observer article is highly misleading. We are taking legal advice and won’t be making any further comments at this time.
“The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.”
