Journey Through Britain

by John Hillaby

Book Overview

A title, which was originally published in 1968, and recounts the author's walk from Land's End to John O'Groats. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0586080198
• ISBN13: 9780586080191
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Paladin Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Relaxing Read

I read this book 20 years ago, and enjoyed it very much. It is a slow, relaxing south-to-north hiking tour of the spine of Britain from Land's End to John O'Groats. Hillaby is a veddy, veddy English writer with an engaging style. I suspect that much of the landscapes and villages he hiked through in the 1960s are much changed today, so the book is probably a retro look at the way things were. I would recommend it anyway. Walk along with Hillaby. You won't be disappointed.

A sublime and invigorating walk

From his writing, I imagine that John Hillaby would make the perfect walking companion. He is well spoken and straightforward, learned and curious. He has a gentle sensitivity for his surroundings and a taste for adventure, coupled the honesty to admit to fatigue, self-doubt, and crankiness. He has all the qualities that would intensify the pleasure of a walk while remaining erringly human, and humble enough to acknowledge the fact. His prose style carries a marvelous economy, where even passages that attain considerable lyricism read as unassuming reactions, the simplest means of conveying the extraordinary:"Tremendous landslides have choked the floor of the glen with large, irregular blocks of rock that glint with mica. No trees. No grass. Only rocks sculptured by fire and ice. In places they are piled high, one above the other in chaotic architectural form as though, during a violent spasm, a cathedral had collapsed. This is Glen Dessary, a rift in the edge of Lochaber. Daysary the sheep-gatherers say, lingering on that last syllable of desolation, as though it betokened the end of the world. I never saw a wilder glen."Passages like this one are intermingled with down-to-earth narrative, digressions on regional dialects or pre-historic civilizations, and descriptions of the geological and biological landscape whose matter-of-factness belie Hillaby's well-studied and sensitive eye. The various elements are thrown together with a casual ease that gives the book a gentle rhythm, like a boat rocking on the swell: walk walk walk description walk walk digression walk walk moment-of-heartbreaking-beauty walk walk digression walk walk description walk walk walk. The rhythm is infectious, hypnotic. The book is so simple, and yet so beautiful, so hard to put down.Despite Hillaby's distinctive voice, he retains a sense of objectivity through humility. He passes his knowledge on to us as a casual guide, remarking on matters of interest as if he were commenting on the weather, and suggesting further reading like a friend pulling books off his shelf for our perusal. And yet, there is no pretense to omniscience: we sense that he is learning this stuff as he goes along, and that we could too, should we so choose.Likewise with the logistics of the hike itself. Things go wrong for Hillaby quite frequently, and while his misfortunes sometimes become a source of humor, he isn't ashamed to tell us that sometimes he is miserable, sometimes he doubts himself, sometimes he is tempted to accept the offer of a ride. But these confessions never take on the form of bravado: if anything, Hillaby understates the challenges he faces. There is no doubt that the hike is difficult, but he isn't so boastful as to complain about his hardship.Modern travel literature generally aims at simplicity, with the naïve humor of misadventure jovially thrown in. Hillaby's account is one of the masterpieces of the genre, achieving sublime effects without a trace of pretension. He puts to sh

Walking the length of Britain

John Hillaby apparently wished to write about walking, and what you see along the way. Setting out with a backpack and some supplies, he walked the length of Britain the in the late '60s, a time when there were hippies everywhere, and the country was in a bit of turmoil. What he demonstrates by this is that, though the police are more intrusive than they used to be (during the journey they hurried him along out of town for sleeping in the common more than once) the country remains Britain, with all of its strange and eccentric accents, monuments, and customs.Hillaby walks from Land's End (the southwest corner of Britain) to John o' Groats (the northernmost point of the island), mostly along the west coast. The edition I had of the book (Folio Society 1987) contained several beautiful maps with the author's path traced in meticulous detail, so that the problem detailed by the audio review was replaced a bit by perhaps knowing too precisely where the author had been. It's not really needed. Other than that, though, the book is very fun, and worthwhile, provided you remember that he wrote it almost 35 years ago.

A Fine Companion While Walking the Dogs

I have to say I disagree with the AudioFile review on this page: I don't have a detailed knowledge of British geography, but nevertheless think I know England and Scotland better for sharing this journey with Mr Hillaby. 30 seconds with a decent atlas was enought for me to see that he was journeying roughly up the west coast of Britain, and to put the counties in pretty much the proper order. Nobody should feel the obsessive need to trace his precise route along a map with a finger. That would probably be far more work than is necessary.I listened to these tapes while walking our dogs in the evenings, and Mr Hillaby was a wonderful and entertaining companion. I sometimes wished he had spoken a little more about the historical significance of some of the landmarks he passed (and indeed, toward the end of the tapes, he does wonder if maybe he should have lingered a bit more at some of the more interesting sites), but on the whole, I found his mixture of history, ethnology and linguistics, botany and zoology, to be just about right. And his observations of the people he met on his trip were about the best part of all.It's hard to compress two months' walking into several hours of tape, but Mr Hillaby has done a fine job. Whether you're walking yourself, or driving, or sitting at home or on the bus, I recommend taking this trip with him.

In memory of your feet (remember them?)

This is the classic volume on the art of walking (well, not really the art: Hillaby thought it was a natural function). For those who cannot remember the last time they walked to a corner store, the prospect of actually walking the length of England (not one of the world's longer islands!) may be somewhat daunting. So sit back and let Hillaby tell you what you are missing. I suppose if there is one thing to lament about North America, it's the culture of the automobile with its concomitant health situation deriving from flabby calves. The English, in particular, are great walkers and have allowed a place of importance for this national pastime, in their towns, villages and countryside. Walking is something one can do in most of Europe, along organised ways, but in England it is something one does do, and both the ways and byways are, in the main, very structured. The old straight track is a term coming from the distant past which refers to a well-trammelled path, usually between the smaller towns. At one time they might have been drove roads for sheep or cattle. At others, Roman legions may have tramped down them widely. In the main, however, the paths across England taken by Hillaby are through farmer's fields and across the high points of various heaths. Go with him for a while and you may just be bitten by a bug which will take you (one hopes it will be on foot) to some of Britain's loveliest spots. They certainly abound.