Books 2013: Walking Home

I discovered Simon Armitage, not through his poems, but through his book Gig : the life and times of a rock-star fantasist, pop music being one of my true joys in life. Since then he's been situated in my head as an author to like. What I also have a tendency to like is Northern England, so when Armitage published his book about walking along the Pennines from north to south, it was of course bought for my Kindle. Not that I'm a walker myself, other than to pick bilberries in the autumn. Though as excercise goes, walking is not so bad.

Armitage sets out to walk along the Pennines, setting up poetry readings at every stop and raising enough money to keep him fed and lodged throughout his trek. The Pennine Way is a trail of more than 400 km, and not done in a day! The book is written as a day-to-day diary where we follow his ups and downs (both geographically and mentally). Surprisingly enough, the landscape described is much more varied than I thought, but then, the only part of the Pennines I've seen has been the part you see from the road when driving from Manchester to York.

Armitage is a wonderful writer, and his reflections on walking, on endurance, on other walkers and so on are full of humour and warmth and something I can't quite put my finger on, but which I like. Is it his northern way, I wonder? (Perhaps because I'm a northerner myself, albeit from Northern Norway, not UK.) Or maybe it is a certain lyricality in his prose that makes it read almost like a novel? He didn''t manage to persuade me to walk the Pennines (not that he tries), but he has convinced me to keep liking his writing.

Armitage, Simon (2012). Walking home : travels with a troubadour on the Pennine Way. London: Faber and Faber.