It is such a good read. Armitage is engaging, funny and honest. The book is full of the stories of the people he walks with, those who put him up at night and musings (or just generalisations based on stereotypes depending on his mood) on those he passes on the way. The writing is poetic in the way he chats, wonders and describes the walk. Im parts you can feel the rising panic of being lost in the mist and rain, or that weathered, rosy cheeked feeling of someone who has come in from a day on the tops in good weather.
My parents and their families are all from Huddersfield (im from just next door in Wakefield). Which meant I felt like I could relate to Armitage, I could see in my head the places he was, and feel his surprise at seeing Emley Moor mast from Malham Cove. The point though is that Simon Armitage writes so well, with an immediacy, that I think you'll get that feeling even if you've never been anywhere near anywhere.
Armitage notes that 'the Pennine Way is a pointless exercise, leading from nowhere in particular to nowhere in particular via no particular route, for no particular reason' but if you go along with Mr Armitage you will get stories and thinkings and snippets and giggles and lost, and its great fun (especially curled up warm and dry in bed with tea).
Thank you very much Faber and Faber for the proof.
Im a couple of chapters in to In One Person by John Irving. Its very 'John Irving', if you know what I mean, so far. Im looking forward to being in the thick of it.
