Chloe Hadjimatheou

You've entered the car park for your destination.

2025 was a weird year for me.

Most of it was spent following one tip-off.

I get a lot of these tip-offs working in investigations, and I can tell you they rarely lead to a story.

They hardly ever pan out.

But this one, the one that came to me last spring, was different.

It's taken me from Wales to Cornwall to France, and then a few months ago... On a sunny October afternoon, I found myself parking up a few hours' drive from London...

So we've just pulled in to a service station off the motorway in Gloucester.

It all feels very deep throat and secret squirrel.

I was there to meet a source.

They are extremely nervous about talking to me.

So at the moment, this is all on background and completely off the record.

And I can't even say who they are.

All this secrecy for a story about a book...

The tip-off that started the ball rolling on this whole thing was from a stranger who messaged me on Instagram.

They told me they had some information about a memoir called The Salt Path.

Art stories really aren't my thing.

I'm more a sort of disinformation, Middle East, true crime kind of journalist.

So I was about to reply that this wasn't one for me.

But then they messaged again and said I should take a closer look at the author because they suspected she might have lied in her books.