THROUGH FIELDS OF GOLD: A Pilgrimage from Berlin to Rome. Signed Copy.

One autumn, award-winning writer, Tom Davies, sets out on a poetic, visionary trek through the heart of Europe to Rome. His mystical journey - with mysterious encounters with Martin Luther, St Francis and Galileo - is also a humorous one, full of down-to-earth incident and evocative description.

Tom Davies's Through Fields of Gold is another entertaining camper-van caper through a sun-drenched, autumnal Europe on the eve of the millennium. Refreshingly, his millennial moment is imbued with spiritual and human significance as he travels from Berlin through the heart of Lutheranism into the luminous light of Rome--the setting of so much rich Christian heritage. In between, Davies's honest, soul-baring account of his relationship with God weaves its way in and around the places he visits: Dachau, Germany, with its painful, accusatory rage against God's silence and man's wickedness; the amusing and bizarre history of Passion plays in Oberammergau, Germany; and the vision of Venice that Davies paints with moments of exquisite atmospheric clarity.

You could stand on the stone bridges and actually hear the water lapping in the darkness. Lovers slipped past, hand in hand, through the tangled shadows, and down on the waterfront the warm night air filled with the odd throaty song of a gondolier.

Significant figures in Christian history literally come to life in this book as Luther, St. Francis, Dante, and Galileo mingle with the motley crew of pilgrims and travelers Davies encounters. The "Welsh hack" is very much in form with this journey. Even if you've never visited any of these places you'll love this tapestry of faith, adventure, and throat-chuckling humor. --Susannah Steel, Amazon.co.uk