Raynor Winn: The Wild Silence, 9780241401460, Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House UK

Raynor Winn’s first book “The Salt Path” was one of these books you stumble across by accident and end up thinking about for a long time. At least that is how it was for me.   I wasn’t surprised the book became a bestseller eventually as it is such a moving read.  When Raynor and her husband Moth lose their house and livelihood, they decide to pack up and walk 630 miles along the English coastline, the South West Coast Path, instead of giving up or ending up in social housing.  Their hike becomes even more incredible after Moth is diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease which makes walking unbearably painful for him at times while living on next to nothing allowing them only to sleep in a tent sometimes their day ration not being more than a chocolate bar and plain noodles. The strength, love and trust  between them despite their hardship makes this such a wonderfully life affirming book.

“The Wild Silence” is the follow up to what happened to their lives after they reach the end of their hike moving into a renovated former church in Cornwall which is offered to them rent free by a generous donor.   Beautiful nature writing, Raynor’s recollection of her troubled childhood only made bearable by finding solace in nature, the story of how they met and fell in love  make up a large part of “The Wild Silence”  but it also deals with Moth’s worsening illness, him struggling not to give in  by studying for a degree and Ray trying to find a way for Moth to not lose that fight which again comes in an unexpected way through a person that has read “The Salt Path”  and enables them to start a new life as farmers on an abandoned farm  being closer to nature and working hard physically.   The last fourth of the book narrates another short hike they undertake, the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland, which sounded pretty crazy and unappealing to me.   I was not as taken by “The Wild Silence” as I was with “The Salt Path” but if you walked and suffered with them in spirit reading the first book, you definitely want to know what direction their life took,  I am glad I know now.