Publisher's Synopsis
Treading Ancient Trails
Seeking solace after the death of her husband, Kim Letson discovers a passion for long- distance walking. Through historical and cultural prisms, accompanied by memories, curiosity, and friends, Letson connects ancient and modern journeys. The
Coast to Coast, Cornish Coastal Path, and Ridgeway in England offer opportunities for adventure. As a pilgrim, she explores a Portuguese Camino from Porto to Santiago, the Pilgrims' Way from Winchester to Canterbury, and then the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. Readers share both the wonders and challenges of the journeys, from mountain passes to wind-swept beaches, from Gothic cathedrals to mysterious stone henges.
Kim Letson has created a curative elixir with Canterbury and Other Tales, a sumptuous blend of adventure-memoir, escape, loss and healing shared in concise, engaging vignettes. Letson's prose shuttles us into each trek, as though granting exclusive peeks into the author's personal travel diary. A series of stories you won't want to end. Bill Arnott - poet and bestselling author.
This book vividly brings back the joys of walking and riding many of the same pathways and facing some of the same challenges which Letson presents with unvarnished candour. While the journeys do not all carry the title of pilgrimage, they all share the pilgrim sense of an inner search - a need to fill the void of the tragic loss of her husband and mother with both a rationale for her own existence and her relationship with the world.
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 27," 1609
Paul Chinn - author of the Lightfoot Guidebooks.
Kim Letson has done it again. In this latest collection of journeys, she shares intimate moments, challenges of the terrain, encounters with both fellow travellers and those who host pilgrims such as her. Walking alongside shadows of the past, she describes intriguing details and the broad sweep of historical context for her travels and surroundings. Her insights are often humorous and sometimes wry, but it is her accomplishments and tenacity which leave us in awe and just a little envious. Christine Dickinson - historian and author.
Like their namesake, these tales are much more than a guided tromp across some of Europe's best treks and pilgrimages. They are also reflections on love, friendship, loss and what it means to be human. Letson shares lyrical glimpses of the landscapes and history she encounters: the uphill grinds, the wet boots, the soaring cathedrals and sweeping views. In her deft hands we are changed. Jeanette Taylor - historian and author.
