A few days after Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, had their Welsh farm repossessed owing to a failed investment, Moth learned he had a rare and incurable neurodegenerative condition. With their world upended and nowhere to live, the couple decided there was only one course of action: to walk.

Their plan was to follow the South West Coast Path, a hiking trail taking them from Minehead in Somerset, along the northern coasts of Devon and Cornwall, around Land’s End and Lizard Point, then back along Cornwall’s south coast, south Devon and ending in Poole in Dorset. The 630-mile walk, taking in secluded beaches and coves, wild moorland and quiet hamlets and coastal towns, is equivalent to climbing Mount Everest four times over. Armed with the essentials – clothes, a tent, sleeping bags, endless packets of dried noodles – they would be “sleeping wild, living wild, working our way through every painful action that had brought us here, to this moment”.

Their journey is documented in Raynor’s award-winning The Salt Path, her lyrical memoir from 2018 that sold more than 2m copies in English, and a film adaptation of which arrives in cinemas this month featuring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. The audiobook is narrated by Raynor, whose quietly despairing tone in the early chapters gradually evolves into cautious optimism. While they endure hardship and self-doubt during their journey, there are moments of levity too. Taking in the wild splendour of their surroundings, the pair get a fresh perspective on all life has thrown at them and resolve to live in the present.

Available via Penguin Audio, 9hr 1min

Further listening

Green Dot
Madeleine Gray, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 8hr 42min
Sacha Simon reads this Fleabag-esque novel about a young woman embarking on an unwise affair with a married colleague.

Broken Light
Joanne Harris, Orion, 12hr 47min
The Chocolat author’s tale of a menopausal woman who rediscovers dormant powers is read by Imogen Stubbs.