Categories: books
Date: 06 April 2009 22:10:28
Before you all leap to your feet, hymn book in hand, and start singing with the sound of the organ reverberating around your head, I should perhaps mention that this is the title of a book by one Charlie Connelly.
In it, the author walks upon England's mountains green following in the footsteps of historical characters - or more accurately, he walks across the mountains green of Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man; the walking he does in England is on somewhat flatter terrain.
Charlie Connelly selects six characters who have played a pivotal role in the history of the British Isles and as he walks imagines the decisions they had to make and the strategies they had to take to avoid the tactics of the enemy.
He starts with the revolt of Boudicca against the Romans in 60 AD and traces her route from Norwich to St Albans via London. This amazing story is followed by King Harold's mad dash from Stamford Bridge to Hastings to attempt to thwart the Norman Invasion just over a thousand years later in 1066. He then traces the path of Olaf the Dwarf on the Isle of Man in 1150 and takes the part (and path) of Owain Glyndwr's battle against the English in 1403. He travels to Scotland to walk from Loch Leven where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned to her ship at Port Mary in 1568. He "speeds [ in a] bonnie boat like a boat on the wing over the sea to Skye" to relive the adventure of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald' s nailbiting escape in 1746; and finally finishes taking a melancholy walk tracing the route of the Doolough Famine Walk in 1849.
The book is written in a chatty style; he grumbles about the weather (he didn't pick his moments for trips very well and soldiers on through some pretty heavy and prolonged downpours!), delights in the people he meets along the way, finds out things on little detours he makes, encounters a couple of fortuitous co-incidences, throws in lots of interesting details about historical incidents we've all learned in school - but we got the dusty dry stuff, not the events that make history live and breathe - and generally covers a lot of ground - both physical and historical.
A recommended read - both in the armchair and to pop in your pack if you're ever inclined to step into your boots and pull on your gaiters to tramp the highways and byways of our islands and history.