I bought two new books back with me from Cornwall. The Salt Path purchased in the Falmouth Bookshop and Sea Fever bought in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. I started Sea Fever one stormy evening in Maenporth, even reading bits aloud to my youngest (who probably wasn't listening) as its various accounts, facts and famous fiction about the sea are so brilliantly drawn together, chimed with a more recent re-telling of a sea journey my daughter's friend had made from Norway to Ipswich, which had challenged the crews' wits in survival against the sea.
The Salt Path is something else, a story of lived experience that is incredible, heart-wrenching, almost impossible to contemplate and yet, it is beautiful and funny and compelling. Ray Winns account of her walk along the south coast path with her husband Moth having lost almost every material thing including their family home through the treachery of a friend, is a rite of passage. Surviving on barely any money, with Moth's ill health looming large on their horizon Ray captures the geography of the SWC and evokes the wildness and romance of the counties Ray and Moth pass through while facing hardship and homelessness. She broaches the concept of homelessness that challenges preconceptions and asks the reader to consider the morality of a society that still refuses to tackle homelessness with any genuine understanding for its causes, or compassion for its victims. There is a vulnerable faith in the kindness of strangers in this journey, as humour and hazard walk hand in hand in this extraordinary book. And what a gift, to know such an enduring love, that alone is reason enough to read this book.