This book chronicles some of the most interesting and intrepid explorer’s of recent history and their journeys around the British Isles. Crane tells their stories in an amusing and highly entertaining way bringing these long gone travellers very much alive for today’s reader. If you haven’t already this book will make you want to go and pull your boots on and go out and explore this fair isle.
Intrepid presenter Nicholas Crane investigates eight epic journeys, following in the footsteps of our greatest indigenous explorers.
Nick presents eight of the most interesting traveller-chroniclers to have explored and reported on the state of the nation. From Gerald of Wales who embarked on a seven week journey around the wild perimeter of Wales in March 1188, to HV Morton, the journalist and travel writer who crossed the length and breadth of England by car in the 1920s. Others include Celia Fiennes who started her many journeys around Britain on horseback in the late 1600s at the age of 20, Tudor antiquarian John Leland, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett, Thomas Pennant, and William Gilpin, who travelled through the north of England by boat in 1770.
'highly readable, informative and amusing... These travellers found challenge, diversity and beauty... It's a joy that, in following them, we find similar experiences today.' BBC COUNTRYFILE magazine
'a serious and absorbing book, with no trace of television breathlessness, and it is handsomely illustrated.' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Crane... is an engaging companion, whether on horseback, bike, foot, boat or car, and writes entertainingly throughout.' WANDERLUST
Author
About Nicholas Crane
Nicholas Crane is a rare combination: he's an expert cartographer and an international explorer with a charisma that brings his personal obsession alive. In 1992-3 he walked alone for 18 months along the entire mountain watershed of Europe, describing this epic adventure in his award-winning book Clear Waters Rising. His next book, Two Degrees West, was an account of his walk down Britain's central meridian, and was published to great acclaim in 1999. Nicholas' most recent book was his biography of the world's first modern, scientific cartographer, the Flemish-born, 16th-century genius Gerard Mercator. MERCATOR: THE MAN WHO MAPPED THE PLANET was published in 2002. He has presented 2 series of Mapman for BBC television.
