The Marches by Rory Stewart is part memoir, part travel book and partly a look at the whole idea of national identity. It’s a mixture of facts, observations and opinions and is all the stronger for the mix. The author is an ex-diplomat, ex-MP (and cabinet minister), ex-soldier, an academic and an author. He currently co-presents a political podcast but this book was written before that became a popular thing. His political position is conservative, but not populist, and his views are not particularly extreme.
The narrative of the book revolves around two walks which the author undertakes in the borders between Scotland and England where he grew up – he was MP for Carlisle. He explores the idea of national identity and whether there is such a thing as a Scots identity and an English one and whether there might be a borders identity as well. He, therefore, as he details his walks talks about the history of the area, meets people who live there and shares some of his own personal history as an inhabitant of this part of the country. He uses examples from his life, and especially from his service abroad, to illustrate his points.
This book, however, is also about his father and their relationship. His father, who was elderly when the walks were taken and whose death is described towards the end of the book, is an old-fashioned colonial administrator and landowner who loves his country. It is obvious that the author disagrees with his parent about many things but it is also very obvious that he adores the older man and he describes him with real affection.
The author writes well and in a straightforward manner and shares a lot about what he loves and what is important to him. He raises many issues and gives his views about identity and difference but in a way that starts you thinking for yourself rather than him being adamant that his point of view is the only one. His love for his family, his country, his culture and this part of the world comes through strongly. I enjoyed reading this book.
Anne Is Reading 
I struggled with it and I suspect that he did when he was writing it. I think that he wanted to write a memoir about his father and tried to do it using the walk they did (sort of) together, but realised too late that it wouldn’t work. I also wonder if he understood that his innate honesty meant that he was portraying his father as the very flawed man that he was and therefore decided to change the focus of the book.
The book covers a lot of ground, but there’s not really anything that holds it together, given that the two long walks have different purposes, which I think is a weakness. As a result, I found some of it rather tedious, because my brain kept trying to make connections that weren’t there.
I wish it hadn’t been the first of his books that I read, as I’ve got ‘Politics on the Edge’ staring at me from a shelf, as it has been for over a year. Having said that, I enjoyed it a lot more than the book by his co-presenter that I’ve read. I won’t be reading any more of his.
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Those are fair comments. I quite liked the bittiness of it. I felt that maybe it was a reflection of how he came to be the person he is or his foundations. Personally, I suspect I would hate his father! I see he has another walking type book out at the moment and I understand that it too includes memories of his father – maybe he has some stuff to work through and is doing it more publically than the rest of us do…
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I looked his father up on Wikipedia and it confirmed that I would also not find myself in sympathy with him. You don’t have to do much reading between the lines to work out that he could be both very selfish and unpleasant, whilst at the same time hard-working and charming. I often wonder about the parts played in Rory’s life by his sister and his half-sisters, since only their existence is acknowledged in the book.
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Of course they may not have wished to be written about!
Anyway, the book has certainly started a discussion even if it’s maybe not what the writer intended!!
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