Book Review: 1001 Walking Tips by Paul Besley

 

1001 Tips is a guide to walking with a difference. Rather than a conventional manual format it consists of succinct tips grouped under various subjects. The tips are very short, few running longer than three or four lines. Every type of walking is covered – urban walking, hillwalking, long-distance walking, winter walking and more. Every walking related topic is here too, everything from fitness and training to winter safety.

Some tips are practical dos and don’ts, some instructional, some informative, some light-hearted (such as have a snowball fight or build a snowman during a winter walk). There’s a huge mix here. Novices can learn much, those with more experience will learn something too – and probably disagree with some of the advice! It’s a good book for arguing over. I’m pleased too to see that there are tips on conservation and taking care of the countryside. This isn’t just a how-to book. 

 

You could read this book straight through, cover to cover, but it’s not really designed for that. I think it’s a book to dip into, to browse, to use for reference, to refresh your knowledge. Going winter walking for the first time (or the first time in a while)? Read the 80 tips in that section. Thinking of long-distance walking. There are 113 tips for that.

The author is well qualified to write the book. He’s a writer on landscape and walking and a walking guide with a particular interest in the Peak District and South Pennines. He’s written four walks guides to the area and is a volunteer ranger for the Peak District National Park and a member of Woodhead Mountain Rescue.  He’s also a good photographer and the book is illustrated with his photographs.

Entertaining, informative, and well-presented this is a book that deserves a place on every walker’s bookshelf. It's published by Vertebrate and costs £25.

Book Review: Wanderlust Europe by Alex Roddie

 

Yesterday a big book arrived and I've been browsing through it ever since. Wanderlust Europe is a collection of walks throughout the continent from Iceland to Georgia, the Canary Islands to Arctic Norway. It's for all walkers and includes day walks, weekend walks, and multi-week walks. It's not just the big names either. Indeed some, like the Tour of Mont Blanc, are not included. There are many tempting walks here I've not heard of before - Fagaras Mountains Traverse, Slovenian Mountain Trail, and Trancaucasian Trail amongst them.

I must declare an interest in the book as it is compiled and much of it written by my friend and colleague Alex Roddie who asked me to contribute some photos for two very different walks, Rothiemurchus Forest and the GR20 on Corsica. Eight of my pictures were chosen, three of them appearing as double-page spreads. There are many other photographers from the British outdoor world whose work is included too - David Lintern, Colin Ibbotson, James Roddie, Andy Wasley, Emily Woodhouse, Lizzie Shepherd, Paddy Dillon, Andrew Locking, Gavin Macfie, Gillian Price amongst them - and there are many images from Alex Roddie himself.

Each of the profusely and beautifully illustrated fifty walks has a descriptive essay, information page, and map. It's a book for inspiration and encouragement not a guidebook though. No one will ever carry this in their pack - indeed, there are probably ultralight hikers whose full packs weigh less than this tome! This is a coffee table book for browsing and daydreaming.  And as such it's wonderful. 

Book Review: Walking The Great North Line by Robert Twigger

Any book that jumps around between Stonehenge, Jack Kerouac, Wittgenstein, Pacerpoles, Edward Abbey, stealth camping, T.S.Eliot, Buffalo clothing and a myriad other subjects suggests an author with a lively, intellectually curious, and eclectic mind and that certainly applies to Robert Twigger. His book about walking from Stonehenge (actually Christchurch but then the first line does say “I didn’t start at the beginning”) to Lindisfarne along a straight line linking a series of ancient sites is one of the more unusual walking books I’ve read.

The book’s subtitle includes a reason for the walk: to Discover the Mysteries of Our Ancient Past. Does the author succeed? I have no idea! And I’m not sure Robert Twigger does either. But he does have a good walk with many entertaining companions, encounters and experiences.

Describing himself as a natural nomad the author is happy to trespass where he can without getting thrown off and camps in woods and other hidden spots, sometimes lighting a fire to sit round. Much of his walk is in what’s generally regarded as rural English farmland, yet he manages to find many wild places - though he does also walk through Birmingham.

I found accompanying the author on his walk  interesting and enjoyable. Never being sure where his magpie mind would jump to next was always intriguing. This is a curious but worthwhile addition to the literature of walking. Recommended!