Chloe Hadjimatheou

It didn't help that he and his family were hounded by the media.

I've seen photos of three men parked outside Hay who told him they were from the Daily Mail, and BBC producers also showed up at the farm.

He and his family found the whole thing pretty stressful.

In any case, Bill sent me lots of emails and I took notes during the time we were chatting, so when you hear Bill in this podcast, they're his words but not his voice.

Bill told her how he'd also been screwed over in business and how straight after that, his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

So he felt this great affinity with Raina.

Bill's an investment banker in the city, but his heart's in farming.

And he saved and bought Hay, one of the oldest cider-producing farms in England.

But after his wife's diagnosis, they found it impossible to move there.

It was just too far from a hospital.

So, however heartbreaking it was for him, he'd resolved to sell it.

But then, when Bill read The Salt Path, it occurred to him that the homeless couple, Moth and Rainer, might want to take over the running of the farm.

At this point, they were living in a rented flat a short drive away in the coastal village of Polruin.

When Rainer finally agreed to meet him, Bill startled them with a proposition.

They could live at Hay and make cider while allowing Moth to be immersed in the beautiful healing surroundings of the farm.

Perhaps the combination of physical exercise and nature would help with his condition.

In her sequel, The Wild Silence, Rainer Wynne writes about meeting Bill for the first time.

She calls him Sam.

Sam gestured animatically across the fields with his hand.

Sam gestured towards some scrubby trees that followed the contours of the valley.