Waking Home by Simon Armitage is a travel book following the author as he walks the Pennine Way from North to South, finishing in Marsden, his home town. The author is a poet and the premise of the book is that he should pay his way by giving readings along the route. I think that this book came with my secondhand book subscription at one time and I kept it, when other books were culled, because I know many of the places he passes through on his travels. I did, however, think that I may not enjoy it because I am not fond of books with gimmicks and I don’t enjoy hearing about people who undertake adventures and who are ill-prepared for them.
I was delighted, therefore, to find that the author had friends who had prearranged the readings and ensured lots of publicity in advance and that the places where he stayed had been booked before he started. People he knew also walked parts of the route with him to keep him company. This meant that the book was not about a perilous journey and a man who wasn’t sure what he was doing, which I had feared, and was, instead, about the things he saw, the people he met and the memories of his childhood that the walk helped him to remember.
The author is interested in the landscape and the history of this most beautiful part of England and he shared his love of it with his observations along the way. I enjoyed travelling with him, although the poetry he included in this book was not really my cup of tea. The author also talks about his childhood and his love of West Yorkshire, where the journey ends. I have read quite a few of these books, about walks which have a theme, and this is definitely one of the better ones.
I enjoyed this book but I didn’t keep it, as I can’t keep every book I read and also because I probably wouldn’t read it again. As I was on holiday in the Canary Islands when I read this, having taken it with me in my suitcase, I left it in the hotel bookshelves for another holidaymaker to find.
