Simon Armitage: Walking Home

Part journal, part nature writing and part autobiography, Simon Armitage’s heroic and sometimes hilarious travelogue Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way combines prose and poetry as Armitage recounts his 256-mile epic walk along the Pennine Way.

Journeying as a latter-day 'troubadour' without a penny in his pocket, Armitage gave poetry readings in village halls, churches, pubs and living rooms as he attempted to walk from the Scottish Borders back to his own doorstep. 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. 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 journey. 

Contemplative, moving and droll, it is a unique narrative from one of our most loved writers.