Walking Home
Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way
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Walking Home
Buy Now for £21.99
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Narrated by:
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Simon Armitage
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By:
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Simon Armitage
About this listen
In summer 2010 Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way. The challenging 256-mile route is usually approached from south to north, from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm, the other side of the Scottish border. He resolved to tackle it the other way round: through beautiful and bleak terrain, across lonely fells and into the howling wind, he would be walking home, towards the Yorkshire village where he was born.
Travelling as a 'modern troubadour' without a penny in his pocket, he stopped along the way to give poetry readings in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms. His audiences varied from the passionate to the indifferent, and his readings were accompanied by the clacking of pool balls, the drumming of rain and the bleating of sheep.
Walking Home describes this extraordinary, yet ordinary, journey. It's a story about Britain's remote and overlooked interior - the wildness of its landscape and the generosity of the locals who sustained him on his way. It's about facing emotional and physical challenges, and sometimes overcoming them. It's nature writing, but with people at heart. Contemplative, moving and droll, it is a unique narrative from one of our most beloved writers.
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Critic reviews
"He is diligent, prolific and wide-ranging. By balancing humour and gravitas, he generates great affection in his readers. If he is not careful, Simon Armitage will end up becoming a national treasure." (Mail on Sunday)
"Armitage has always been a wonderfully fluent writer, able to riff on almost any subject in either prose or poetry.... The result is a homage to an oddly old-fashioned Britain, full of glorious eccentrics and hearts of gold, but vividly believable for all that." (Financial Times)
"Armitage's great gift is his voice. He is able to make his walk talk as he does and I have never read a more fully inhabited book of walking. It is funny but moving, quiet but strong." (The Observer)
His narrative made you want to read on. Humorous anecdotes along the way were entertaining.
Interesting travel tale
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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
No, though I admit I did finish it.Would you recommend Walking Home to your friends? Why or why not?
No. I chose it for a perspective about the Pennine Way and that aspect of the book was dolorous. the poetical and observational perspectives were OK, but just OK.What didn’t you like about Simon Armitage’s performance?
Armitage's voice drones terribly and has very little animation. The main reason I listen to audiobooks rather than read the text equivalent is to get the added value from the narrator: in this case there was none.Do you think Walking Home needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No.Muted content; dire narration
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I should have read this rather than listened
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A wonderful lyrical treasure
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wonderful, honest evocation of a personal journey
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