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BOWIELAND

Walking In The Footsteps Of David

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About this listen

 'Fabulous... What a ghost story! A ripping read.' IAIN SINCLAIR, author of London Orbital

'Vividly celebrates Bowie as not just a chameleonic visionary, but a nomadic one, a creature informed by place and circumstance" STUART MACONIE

'Bowieland will make you want to take your very own pilgrimage, accompanied by the great man's songs.'
ALEXANDER LARMAN, THE OBSERVER

BOWIE IS STILL OUT THERE...

Following open heart surgery, poet and writer Peter Carpenter was given one instruction - 'Walk, if you want to stay on this planet'. And so when his hero and inspiration David Bowie died in 2016, he knew what he had to do. The man who was to so many a companion and guide had left no shrine, no focal point of understanding. To reconnect with Bowie, he would take a walk into the past, to the streets, towns and places where David Jones became something more.

Walking to recover, to stay alive, Peter realised he was also recovering his lost hero. Leaving behind Heddon Street and Brixton, well-known Bowie shrines, he moved out through South London edgelands and suburbia to remoter Bowie haunts: Croydon, Aylesbury, Pett Level, Southend-on-Sea. Finding the windows Bowie had stared out from in Clareville Grove; the streets in Beckenham where he'd scurried by. He sifted through debris on a patch of waste ground in Tunbridge Wells where Bowie's parents first met. He turned the handle and entered Shirley Parish Hall to find the same stage where a young Davy Jones and the Kon-Rads set up to play back in 1962; and travelled to Berlin, to emerge from the S-Bahn to gape at the ruined portico of the Anhalter Bahnhof and asked 'What is this?'

In Bowieland, Carpenter's peripatetic trampings seem to echo Bowie's own wandering creative spirit, the walks often uncovering hidden layers, and making fresh connections to key Bowie stories, revealing influences conscious and subconscious. Through walking, an understanding is reached of where Bowie sits in the culture, his place among the poets, painters, artists and musicians who came before him, who inhabited the same spaces and in doing so passed on their wisdom to Bowie.

Through Carpenter's travels these suburban lands became a new, very real place, that anyone can visit if they take the time... Welcome to 'Bowieland'©2025 Peter Carpenter Entertainment & Celebrities History & Criticism Music Thought-Provoking England Heartfelt Haunted

Critic reviews

A fabulous, labyrinthine ascent into the multiverse of Bowie, from a fan who really has walked the walk.
Peter Carpenter's Bowieland is a search for heroes in the suburban sprawl. It asks, 'Where are we now?' as Carpenter tracks his own recovery alongside the ghost of Bowie, charting changes in himself and the world around him. This beautiful pilgrimage is a life-affirming station-to-station journey, translating the map into the vivid sounds and visions of a lost idol. It's a wonderful book with a deep longing for all those golden years, and the wild-eyed boy from Freecloud who changed the world.
[A] brilliant book...The very best memorial to Bowie.
Bowieland is a wonderful book.
All stars
Most relevant
I am in the core demographic for this book - growing with this music in Bromley. Frequently I enjoyed walking with the author in my mind’s eye. But it is the very blandness of these streets that gave Bowie (and me) something to escape from.

One for serious fans and Bromley boys - like me!

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I am only 6 chapters in but I am hooked on this book and my husband is regretting suggesting it to me! It is a very personal account of Peter’s travels to discover what made Bowie such an enigmatic character. I must add that I am very familiar with the areas described in the book, as I grew up in SE London and Beckenham and Bromley were my stomping grounds, so this makes the book all the more special for me - I can picture so many of the places described, even the 3 Tuns pub in Beckenham which I used to frequent! I recently did the Hansa Studio tour in Berlin and was happy to hear Thilo mentioned in the book/he’s a great tour guide! I love the detail that Peter goes into and how the book portrays the early suburban life of someone who became a globally recognised superstar. A must for any Bowie fan anyone interested in popular culture! Excellent.

Highly recommended!

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Having grown up in some of the areas I found the book interesting on many levels. I also know many of the London haunts which I was happy revisit. Mr Carpenter's enthusiasm for Bowie is infectious and I found myself revisiting the back catalogue to listen out for little quirks...on Any Warhol and Life on Mars for example. An excellent book and Mr C is also or was an inspirational English teacher to boot.

Insightful and a great listen thoroughly recommend

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What a fantastic listen, an absolute joy ; Peter Carpenter is a brilliant raconteur and fabulous narrator.
The research is amazing; i've read many david bowie books and a lot are very much the same ( and somewhat clinical) this book really delves into stuff i had no idea about; i now know David even better by knowing how he became who he was.
Highly recommended.

Fantastic voyage pilgrimage

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I've loved all things Bowie since I was a kid & first discovered him (around 1977), & I do class myself as a huge fan of the man, the myth, the music.
I know a fair bit about him & his life, & have read a lot of books about Bowie, but I’m really sorry to say that I found this book to be a bit too dry, a bit too dull & just bogged down with far too much attention to very dull details.

Yes, there is some fascinating stuff in it & it's interesting enough but jeeze, it’s so slow going. I had to increase the speed to 1.30 as it was so incredibly hard to listen to it at regular speed.

I would return the book & get my credit back, but it says I can't unfortunately.

For true hard core fans only

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