Thirty-nine Million Steps , livre ebook

Brown Dog Books - Jonathan Richards

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

131 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

The Thirty-nine Million Steps is the true story of an epic 'end to end' solo walk the length of Britain. Entertaining and beautifully written from start to finish, this book is as charming as it is inspirational. Vivid descriptions let the reader follow every step of the way from the very tip of Cornwall to the further corner of Caithness. The author's careful observations provide insight into a changing nation and an antidote to the chaos of modern commuter life. Written in accessible but elegant English, this book is ideal for any student of the English language. Complete with helpful footnotes, this book will enable students not only to improve their English, but also to learn about the people, the history, the geography, the culture and the character of Britain.

Informations

Publié par	Brown Dog Books
Date de parution	27 mars 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785452505
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published 2018
Copyright © Jonathan Richards 2018
The right of Jonathan Richards to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Published under licence by Brown Dog Books and The Self-Publishing Partnership, 7 Green Park Station, Bath BA1 1JB
www.selfpublishingpartnership.co.uk
ISBN printed book: 978-1-78545-249-9 ISBN e-book: 978-1-78545-250-5
Cover design by Kevin Rylands Internal design by Tim Jollands All maps and photographs by Jonathan Richards
Printed and bound in the UK
FRONT COVER PICTURE Footsteps in the sand above Brora, northern Scotland.
To all those who seek challenges in their life, and to all those who have challenges thrust upon them.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Land’s End – The Tamar Valley
CHAPTER 2 The Tamar Valley – The Mendips
CHAPTER 3 The Mendips – The Malverns
CHAPTER 4 The Malverns – Stafford
CHAPTER 5 Stafford – Marple
CHAPTER 6 Marple – Huddersfield
CHAPTER 7 Huddersfield – Malham
CHAPTER 8 Malham – Kirkby Stephen
CHAPTER 9 Kirkby Stephen – Hadrian’s Wall
CHAPTER 10 Hadrian’s Wall – Carter Bar
CHAPTER 11 Carter Bar – Innerleithen
CHAPTER 12 Innerleithen – Edinburgh
CHAPTER 13 Edinburgh – Loch Leven
CHAPTER 14 Loch Leven – Pitlochry
CHAPTER 15 Pitlochry – Carrbridge
CHAPTER 16 Carrbridge – The Morangie Forest
CHAPTER 17 The Morangie Forest – Golspie
CHAPTER 18 Golspie – Lybster
CHAPTER 19 Lybster – John o’ Groats
The End to End Ballad
Preface
Life’s path is rarely a continuously flat, even and straightforward passage. More likely, there will be unexpected twists and turns and we may encounter surprise obstacles or, as commuters know, we may be faced with major disruptions and diversions along the way. So it was in this book, which recalls how I set out and walked on my own, without a support team, back-up vehicle or even a mobile phone, from one end of Britain to the other.
I still tell students in my science classes that we are the product of our inherited genes and our environment; I have my parents to thank for many things besides my eye colour and the shape of my nose. My father, whose reputation at cricket for always being ‘not out’ at the end of a game earned him the nick-name “Red ink Ricardo”, taught me never to give up, and my remarkable mother’s battle with terminal illness continues to inspire.
None of us can truly look into the future or see what is coming around the bend. When I wrote this account, I couldn’t have imagined that my life would have taken the course it has. Decades later, I do find myself in what seems like a different life, in a different world. By walking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, I hoped to learn about my native land but also to escape the scramble of modern life. These days, I ride the Beijing metro and may find myself compressed in a sea of humanity, while my state-of-the-art smart-phone even tells me how many steps I really do take each day. But I don’t feel enslaved by technology and I don’t feel like a sardine packed in Peking style, for I have known freedom, fresh air, independence and adventure and I have found some degree of the fulfillment that I can see people all around me are seeking.
The publication of The Thirty-Nine Million Steps itself represents another step along the path to fulfillment. It has been made possible with the expertise and professionalism of Douglas, Heather and their team at SPP, also by the support and understanding of Malika and our boys George and James, who keep me young at heart.
The dedication in this book is really for everyone – all those I have mentioned in this preface, but also for you, dear reader. I hope that you will enjoy and may be inspired, by my story, to take up and meet your own challenges in life. After all, as Einstein might have said, if you throw enough energy at something, anything is possible.
Jonathan Richards, Beijing, 2018
Introduction
Murder forced Richard Hannay, hero of Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps 1 to make his escape through England and the Scottish Lowlands. There are no murders and no matters of national security in my story, and my escape through Britain was not made from spies, but from the rat race of modern life. Nonetheless, this is an adventure story – in fact, the adventure of a lifetime.
Inspired by such diverse figures as Ian Botham 2 and Jimmy Savile 3 , I was thirty-two years old when I first had the notion of taking up Britain’s ultimate walking challenge. I began to plan how I could walk, solo, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. Why that particular challenge and why not a bungee jump, a cycle ride, a ‘Channel swim’, or the London Marathon? Well, there were good reasons. Being covered in lard has never appealed, nor did the prospect of dodging car ferries and the like in the world’s busiest shipping highway – and I was put off cycling as an undergraduate. From the village of Lympstone on the Exe Estuary I would pedal, painfully, up and down the hills into Exeter, usually laden with weighty tomes such as Grout’s ‘A History of Western Music’, together with my oboe and a cor anglais… and it always rained. When, some years later, I decided to give cycling another go, returning from work one summer evening I passed a lorry outside the Danish bacon depot in Aylesford at precisely the moment that animal rights activists detonated the bomb which destroyed it. No, cycling was not for me! I can see the fun in bungee jumping but is anyone really the wiser for a few seconds of terror? The marathon’s throng of heaving bodies, a human race through city streets, seemed to sum up the very things I wanted to escape. On the other hand, to experience and understand even a little more about this patchwork land so rich in heritage and so varied in geography, and even fleetingly to pass over and through its hills and forests, its plains and marshes, and to follow its rivers and coastlines, didn’t seem so daft after all! So ‘End to End’ it had to be, and, two years later, one warm day in the second week of July, I was ready to set off.
The planning, as you might imagine, involved quite a bit of research and time spent in the library. I read, or browsed, any number of walking handbooks and guides, as well as stories of those who, like John Hillaby 4 , had their own marathon tales to tell. At the same stage in his planning, Hillaby acknowledged that the feat could be done, but wondered whether, at fifty, he could do it. Could I?
Fitness was in my favour. I have a wiry build and teach games as well as science in school. Running and training with the children keep me more or less in shape, and while the physical requirements of carrying a heavy pack for twenty or thirty miles in tough conditions may differ, for example, from the demands of refereeing an under-elevens’ football match, barring accident or injury I was always fairly confident of making the distance. Stamina would obviously be a factor, but I decided at an early stage that the best strategy would simply be to wait and see if I could keep going, day in, day out – besides which, I am a great believer in the curative powers of sleep. How often do we go to bed ‘shattered’ and wake up the next day refreshed, renewed and ready for more…? And how else is it that if you go to bed with the crossword and get stuck with a clue, in the morning the answer is obvious?
But stamina and fitness would not be the only enabling factors. Apart from “Could I?” I had to ask, “Could I fit it in?” and also, as a family man with two young daughters, “Could I get away with it?” In these respects I can count my blessings. For one thing, teaching in the independent sector has its advantages. We work hard and for long hours but the summer break is wonderful! Two clear months is ample time to recharge one’s batteries or, I can tell you, to do something useful, like paint the house inside and out, but also enough to walk the length of Britain. I have worked in business, too, and can clearly remember how we used to look forward to the weekend, or to a few days at Christmas, but the school holiday gave me the time I would need. Perhaps there are college students who, like me, appreciate the long holidays but for whom there are other priorities, such as finding employment or repaying debt.
So could I get away with it? It certainly seemed unlikely and, had it not been for the tolerance and support of Lydia, my wife, I am absolutely sure that the project wouldn’t have got off the ground at all. Not only did she send me maps and other things along the way, but also she drove all the way from Surrey to meet me in Caithness in a car which, according to one mechanic, following a breakdown, “would never make it.” In the meantime, amidst building works at home, she looked after our girls, Isabella, who was six and a half, and Francesca, just three… not to mention battling against floods, an infestation of bugs which swarmed down one of the chimneys, and a direct lightning strike on another! Hers was the real strength during those weeks.
Around one in three of us either have had, or will develop, cancer in some form during our lives, although not necessarily at the end of them. In part, this is due to advances made in medical care and in part due to heightened awareness and screening programmes which assist early diagnosis. It is also due to the work of doctors and scientists committed to understanding the disease. I wanted to help, and chose a high-profile cancer charity for which I would raise sponsor money.
I approached family, friends and local businesses. One idea, which turned out to be very successful, was to set up a three-w