The Wild Silence - Raynor Winn

 After reading The Salt Path recently I was so excited to find out what happened next in the lives of Raynor and Moth. The Wild Silence is Winn's second book, documenting the couple's experiences following their successful completion of the 630-mile South West Coast Path walk, during which they lived in a tent and on minimal food and funds, and also following the success of Raynor's subsequent book The Salt Path. Having loved the first book so much, I was sceptical about where the second book would go and whether it would be as beautiful and moving as the story of their time wild camping and becoming one with nature. This book certainly takes a different path (ha, see what I did there?), but was nonetheless equally moving, awe-inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable.

In this book, Winn talks of their lives back within four walls, as they now have a permanent (ish!) residence and Moth is studying at university, once again defying odds as a sufferer of a degenerative disease. We learn about Moth's fading memories of the couple's Coast Path walk, and he is struggling to remember certain moments which Raynor can picture vividly. As a remedy to this, she decides to write a book about their experiences on the path, using their annotated travel guide as a prompt to remember the highs and lows (and everything in between) of their adventure. She gifts this book to Moth for his birthday, so that he can refresh his memory of the moments Raynor holds so dear - such as the lightly-salted blackberries they enjoyed on their walk, given by a kind stranger. Once Moth has read the book, he insists that Raynor go ahead and send it to a publisher, as it's just too good not to share with the world.

Raynor talks about the acquiring of a publishing deal for The Salt Path, a new-found disposable income and a new home which they stumble across when Raynor is contacted by a fan on Twitter, of all places. It is so lovely to watch Raynor and Moth's lives improving and their fortunes turning, especially after the hardships they suffered in the first book when they were scraping pennies together for food. As with the first novel, there are moments of extreme sadness and it can be an incredibly moving read, but there are also hilarious anecdotes which leave you laughing out loud and feeling so much joy. These moments, whether happy or upsetting, are made even more poignant in their reality - unlike with a novel, you remain intensely aware that you are reading about Moth and Raynor's real lives which really are affected by Moth's disease, financial worries and homelessness.

Although this book is very different to the first, there are still anecdotes from some of the couple's hikes and travelling - specifically, they go to Sweden this time! - when they realise that Moth's illness seems to improve when he is active and surrounded by nature. Defying the odds that his body and brain should be shutting down, being out on the wild terrain seems to strengthen him and resting only encourages quicker descent into pain and stiffness. This is another beautiful and inspiring book from Raynor Winn and I really hope she writes a third!