- Voices on the Path
- ISBN: 9781845279523
- Andrew Green
- Publication: October 2024
- Format: Paperback, 198x128 mm, 350 pages
Walking may seem a simple act. But it has a long history, much of it unnoticed. It has always carried a wide range of associations, in a myriad of areas, including manual work, philosophy, social class, landscape, political protest, cartography, poetry, religion, tourism and art. Wales is especially rich in traditions of walking - walking by its own people and by visitors.
Author Biography:
Andrew Green’s previous books are: In the chair: how to guide groups and manage meetings (Parthian, 2014), Wales in 100 objects (Gomer, 2018), Cymru mewn 100 gwrthrych (Gomer, 2018) [Welsh Book of the Year, creative non-fiction, 2019], Rhwng y silffoedd (Y Lolfa, 2019).
Further Information:
Voices on the Path takes a meandering route through this history, beginning with the footprints of Mesolithic people in the intertidal mud of the Severn estuary and ending with strollers on Swansea’s promenade today. Along the way, the reader is invited to rest and spend time with some of the most interesting walkers, including Gerald of Wales, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Francis Kilvert, George Borrow, Anne Lister, Ursula Martin, Hanna Engelkamp and Delyth Jenkins. Their individual voices enliven the narrative. The reader will also meet a host of other remarkable walkers, many of them little known, and, through the eyes of walkers, will learn much about how Welsh people lived, and how Wales was seen by people from outside.
Voices on the Path will interest anyone interested in walking, the social history of Wales (including traditions of pilgrimage, industrial labour, protest, language, tourism and recreation), and the history of literature in both Welsh and English. It is not designed as an academic book, but end-notes allow readers to follow up the printed and manuscript sources used.
There will be a number of coloured photographs illustrating the text.
Voices on the Path provides an unusual perspective on the history of Wales. By refocussing our history in this way it provides a number of extremely interesting insights which might otherwise be missed or glossed over. It is well written in a clear expository style and should be of interest to both historians and the general reader.
