Published in 2014
256 pages
Linda Cracknell writes short stories, novels, drama for BBC Radio Four, and creative non-fiction. She won the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday short story competition, and was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book Award for her story collection Life Drawing (2000) and the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing. Her second story collection A Searching Glance was published by Salt in 2008. She was the recipient of a Creative Scotland Award in 2007 for a project linking walking and writing. Linda edited the anthology A Wilder Vein (2011) and has contributed wide range of other anthologies and magazines. She lives in highland Perthshire.
What is this book about?
A fascinating and moving account of walking in the footsteps of others, and a masterwork of travel writing.
In 1952, Linda Cracknell’s father embarked on a hike through the Swiss Alps. It was the last walk he would ever take. Linda retraces that fateful journey 50 years later, following the trail of the man she barely knew. This collection of walking tales take their theme from that pilgrimage. The walks trace the contours of memories, following friends, writers, and relations along trails across mountains, valleys, and coasts from the Highlands of Scotland to Kenya. Each walk is about the reaffirming of memories, beliefs, and emotions, and especially of the connection that one can have with the past. This book celebrates life, family, friendship, and walking through mountain landscapes richly textured with stories. A masterwork of travel writing in the vein of Robert Macfarlane and Roger Deakin, this lyrical, poignant book contains stunning landscape descriptions.
