LoveReading Says
Shortlisted for The THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2014 - The new literary prize for Nature & Travel Writing about Britain. A uniquely charming, droll, moving, British narrative from writer and poet Simon Armitage as he recounts his 256 mile (North to South) walk along the Pennine Way. Particularly fascinating is that he took no money and either bartered his way through or survived on any money he made at poetry readings.
Sue Baker's View.......
Simon Armitage makes a good companion for this traverse of the Pennine Way (backwards). Starting on the Scottish borders he makes his way home to Yorkshire. And he must keep up; some “interweb” work beforehand had resulted in the recruitment of a small army of walking companions and people happy to provide a bed and a meal. Then there were the poetry readings booked in advance, making a framework for the walk, there was no staying in bed or missing a day without letting down his audience along the way as he came to village halls, marquees or pub. The Pennine Way is very hard work over some incredibly bleak and exposed country and by Simon Armitage’s descriptions of way markers, not a walk for the geographically challenged. But he made it and his progress from a reluctant walker to a strider of mountain and vale is perceptive, an often very funny look at everything from landscape to squashed mars bars.
Like for Like Reading.....
Ramble On: The Story of our Love for Walking Britain, Sinclair McKay
The Pennine Way, Roly Smith and John Morrison (Photographs)
Sue Baker
Find This Book In
| Primary Genre |
Travel
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Walking Home Synopsis
The wandering poet has always been a feature of our cultural imagination. Odysseus journeys home, his famous flair for storytelling seducing friend and foe. The Romantic poets tramped all over the Lake District searching for inspiration. Now Simon Armitage, with equal parts enthusiasm and trepidation, as well as a wry humor all his own, has taken on Britain's version of our Appalachian Trail: the Pennine Way. Walking "the backbone of England" by day (accompanied by friends, family, strangers, dogs, the unpredictable English weather, and a backpack full of Mars Bars), each evening he gives a poetry reading in a different village in exchange for a bed. Armitage reflects on the inextricable link between freedom and fear as well as the poet's place in our bustling world. In Armitage's own words, "to embark on the walk is to surrender to its lore and submit to its logic, and to take up a challenge against the self."
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780871404169 |
| Publication date: |
23rd April 2013 |
| Author: |
Simon Armitage |
| Publisher: |
Liveright Publishing Corporation an imprint of Liveright |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
304 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Travel
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| Other Genres: |
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About Simon Armitage
Simon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire in 1963. In 1992 he was winner of one of the first Forward Prizes, and a year later was the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. He works as a freelance writer, broadcaster and playwright, and has written extensively for radio and television. Previous titles include Kid, Book of Matches, The Dead Sea Poems, CloudCuckooLand, Killing Time, The Universal Home Doctor, Homer's Odyssey and Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid. His acclaimed translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was published in 2007.
Author photo © Jonty Wilde
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