In July 2025 a literary scandal erupted when The Observer journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou claimed that Raynor Winn, author of the award-winning memoir The Salt Path, had omitted significant facts and invented key parts of her story. This much-loved account of Winn’s transformative and healing coastal walk with her terminally ill husband after they lost their home, had recently been made into a film.

In her article Hadjimatheou maintained that the details of how Winn and her husband lost their home and the nature of his illness were fabricated. Winn responded with a 2,300-word statement on her website defending her memoir and castigated the claims as “grotesquely unfair” and “highly misleading”.

The scandal stunned the publishing world and readers alike, with commentators arguing that audiences expect a level of truth from works labelled as autobiography or memoir. Though sometimes used interchangeably, there are some key differences between each genre.

Autobiography usually denotes a work which details the whole life or work of a public figure narrated from their point of view. Memoir instead recounts certain specific experiences or interactions from the author’s life, allowing writers to explore and communicate their emotions, experiences and beliefs. Its name is literally derived from the French word mémoire, meaning “memory”.

The problem of truth in this genre is almost constantly in the spotlight. While some memoir controversies have centred on what are alleged to be outright lies – such as the Salt Path – others may reflect the tension between a reader’s........

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