This book is remarkably well informed and hats off to the love and care and learning that has gone into it. It is mainly a peaceful, appreciative stroll through the English countryside and it has me planning to walk the Cotswold Way 18 months hence.
Every day as he passes through a landscape and sees some animals or listens to the dawn chorus of birds or passes by a village or a monument he paints a little historical picture over one or two pages, a charming or engaging piece of historical folklore, in tone, somewhat reminiscent of the antique roadshow on telly. He includes some snippets of environmentalism, some reflections on overpopulation, some information about land use and ownership and land degradation, a reflection on the plight of bees in a conversation with a beekeeper, a description of a cheese running festival and he inserts a variety of pleasant quotations from poets and other nature writers appertaining to his topic or region. Almost all of his little snippets of back story or contemporary factoids are interesting. His love of the countryside, of the trees and creatures is evident.
His walk connects a labyrinth of ancient footpaths. It was inspired by something his father told him about Spring unfolding at the pace of a man's walk. His great background knowledge comes from a lifetime love of nature writing and he can name and tell a story about nearly everything he sees, all the flowers and trees and plants and places. He 'walked with people who know about walking, who observe nature and know it deeply'. He engages with locals, farmers, beekeepers, pub landlords.
He writes very evenly, there is a quietness, an English restraint. When passion does creep in it is usually in the form of quotes from other writers. These provide some colour and intensity. There is sometimes a worried love for that in nature which he cherishes and which he feels is under threat. But he generally has a calm writing style, with a steady accretion of factoids and stories, not too many superlatives or too much poesy.
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