Clare Balding said Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir The Salt Path “left [her] cold” because she believed the book portrayed walking in a way that could damage the reputation of walkers and their relationship with landowners and councils.
In an interview to promote her new novel Pastures New, Balding, a broadcaster and author, said she found the narrator of The Salt Path unsympathetic and accused the couple at the centre of the memoir of breaking "so many codes of responsible walking behaviour" while trekking the South West Coast Path. "I was fearful they would give all walkers a bad reputation and ruin the relationship with landowners and local councils," she said. Balding added that when the book was first published she had been asked to record an interview with the author but "wasn’t keen" and now understood why.
Balding, whose new novel Pastures New is published by HarperCollins and is available now, said her own fiction continues to place animals at the centre of plots. She described the dogs and horses in Pastures New as "characters in their own right," reflecting a lifelong affection for animal stories. The book is priced at £20 and is being promoted through the Mail Bookshop.
The programme presenter said she and her wife, Alice, often read the same kinds of books: "a well-written story about real people, preferably with characters who are strong, funny and likeable." She said she had just finished Judy Murray’s novel Game, Set and Murder and was starting Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which her wife had recently enjoyed.
Balding also recalled formative influences on her reading, citing The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting and writers such as Gerald Durrell, James Herriot, Michael Morpurgo and Beatrix Potter. She said she loved reading as a child and that excelling at English at school gave her an excuse to read more. That early enthusiasm has carried through into her writing: when she began to write for children she made animals central to her stories.
Describing what she would take to a desert island, Balding said she would bring a giant encyclopedia to learn from and a cookery book, acknowledging her own culinary limitations. She said it had been a long-held dream to be able to talk to animals, like the fictional Dr. Dolittle.
Balding’s comments on The Salt Path add to ongoing conversations in walking and outdoor communities about responsible access and conduct on public paths. The Salt Path, which recounts Raynor Winn and her husband’s decision to walk the South West Coast Path after losing their home, became a high-profile bestseller and inspired discussion about homelessness, resilience and hiking etiquette when it was published.
Pastures New continues Balding’s recent work in fiction and children’s books and reflects her personal interest in animals and countryside life. The author and presenter has written across genres, often drawing on rural settings and animal characters to explore friendships and human-animal bonds.