Walking Home: A Poet's Journey - Hardcover

Armitage, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871404168 ISBN 13: 9780871404169

Publisher: Liveright, 2013

Synopsis

Nineteen days, 256 miles, and one renowned poet walking the backbone of England.

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.” 29 photographs

About this title

About the Author

Simon Armitage is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds and poet laureate of the United Kingdom. He has published ten collections of poetry and is the author of four stage plays, over a dozen television films, a libretto, two novels, and three memoirs. His poetry has won numerous awards, including a Gregory Award, a Forward Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.

Reviews

*Starred Review* The Pennines are a mountain range in the north of England. But as poet Armitage points out, mountain is a relative term here since they are not particularly high—the tallest is just under 3,000 feet—and they are often just referred to as fells or hills. Opened in 1965, the Pennine Way was Britain’s first long-distance public pathway, and it has a reputation, according to Armitage, as being the toughest and, hence, the most prized. At 260 or so miles long, it begins in Derbyshire, England, and ends in Kirk Yetholm, Scotland. In the summer of 2010, Armitage decided he would walk the entire length of the trail, but in the wrong direction, from north to south, since most people do the opposite. What’s more, and more importantly, he planned to give poetry readings at every stop, offering poetry as payment like a kind of modern-day troubadour. It is an ingenious idea for a journey and a brilliant idea for a book, which includes some of his poems. In this entertaining jaunt through rural Britain and unpredictable weather, part travel guide and part memoir, Armitage describes his adventures, from collie dogs growling at his heels and mean-looking cows to the unbridled generosity of strangers. A travel gem. --June Sawyers

Edition details

• Publisher: Liveright
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871404168
• ISBN 13: 9780871404169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304