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The Field of the Star: Pilgrim's Journey to Santiago de Compostela by Nicholas Luard
Originally published in 1998 this is an account of a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela from Le Puy in France, completed in stages over 3 years by the author, his sister and a friend. Luard took to the road whilst reflecting on the imminent death of his eldest daughter and her life, friends and ultimate absence become interwoven into the text.
- GenresTravel
Paperback
First published January 28, 1999
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About the author
Nicholas Luard
25 books5 followersNicholas Lamert Luard was a writer and politician.
He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F.R. Leavis. He met Peter Cook through Footlights. A very short academic career was replaced by club management on the strength of a legacy. He co-founded The Establishment in the early 1960s with Peter Cook.
He then went into writing. He was one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye.
With Chris Brasher, Nigel Hawkins and Denis Mollison, he founded the John Muir Trust in 1983. Nick served as Chairman from 1991 to 1997.
Luard stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1997 general election, against Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate.
Luard married Elisabeth Longmore, the food writer, in 1962.
He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F.R. Leavis. He met Peter Cook through Footlights. A very short academic career was replaced by club management on the strength of a legacy. He co-founded The Establishment in the early 1960s with Peter Cook.
He then went into writing. He was one of the Lords Gnome of Private Eye.
With Chris Brasher, Nigel Hawkins and Denis Mollison, he founded the John Muir Trust in 1983. Nick served as Chairman from 1991 to 1997.
Luard stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1997 general election, against Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate.
Luard married Elisabeth Longmore, the food writer, in 1962.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 8, 2015
To an extent Luard's memoir has very little to do with the Camino de Santiago. He completed the pilgrimage, with his sister and a friend, over the course of several stages and several years, and the book is structured loosely around those stages -- but more around his eldest daughter, their complex relationship, and her imminent death.
Luard was not, as he admits, a particularly present father in his children's childhoods; he was not, as his wife has written about, always a particularly good husband. But when his daughter Francesca was diagnosed with AIDS -- which, then, was a death sentence -- he was forced to take a closer look at his life, and his children.
Few of this book's details are found along the walk to Santiago itself. The Luards had previously lived in Spain for some years, so he was familiar with both language and custom; this was not the same trek that a relative outsider would have experienced. He is largely uninterested in either the religious or the cultural aspects of the walk -- he treats it more as a challenge, an adventure.
As the book progresses, it becomes more about Francesca. The walk is not for her, and it is not about her. It is for Luard himself, but he cannot escape the reality of his daughter's illness. The focus becomes not making it from place to place but wrestling with things he cannot change.
Luard doesn't always paint himself in a wonderfully flattering light, and I can't say I came away with particularly fuzzy feelings towards him, but as a book it's poignant. Multifaceted. How different would it have been if Francesca had been diagnosed fifteen, even ten years later? How different would Luard's pilgrimage have been? No way of knowing, of course, but here we have his reality.
Luard was not, as he admits, a particularly present father in his children's childhoods; he was not, as his wife has written about, always a particularly good husband. But when his daughter Francesca was diagnosed with AIDS -- which, then, was a death sentence -- he was forced to take a closer look at his life, and his children.
Few of this book's details are found along the walk to Santiago itself. The Luards had previously lived in Spain for some years, so he was familiar with both language and custom; this was not the same trek that a relative outsider would have experienced. He is largely uninterested in either the religious or the cultural aspects of the walk -- he treats it more as a challenge, an adventure.
As the book progresses, it becomes more about Francesca. The walk is not for her, and it is not about her. It is for Luard himself, but he cannot escape the reality of his daughter's illness. The focus becomes not making it from place to place but wrestling with things he cannot change.
Luard doesn't always paint himself in a wonderfully flattering light, and I can't say I came away with particularly fuzzy feelings towards him, but as a book it's poignant. Multifaceted. How different would it have been if Francesca had been diagnosed fifteen, even ten years later? How different would Luard's pilgrimage have been? No way of knowing, of course, but here we have his reality.
May 29, 2023
Though Luard writes very well, both descriptively and at times sensitively he himself doesn’t come across as very likeable. But he writes in such a self aware way that you sense he knows this.
Putting aside the man himself, this is a fine book describing his walk along the Santiago de Compostela, Spain, ostensibly as a tribute to his daughter who had died of AIDS. Knowing this the reader gets to experience what the walk entailed, over a 4 year period and a Father’s grief for the loss of his daughter. Obviously proud and loving of his daughter it transpires he had a difficult relationship with her, was a man out of touch with the times and carried a certain amount of regret. But overall I was educated, moved and touched by his account.
Read it and I think you will also enjoy the events and places he describes and be moved by a man motivated by grief and regret but overwhelmingly by love. But be prepared for a man of his times who would now, even more than when the book was written, be very much at odds with today’ mores and social sensibilities.
Putting aside the man himself, this is a fine book describing his walk along the Santiago de Compostela, Spain, ostensibly as a tribute to his daughter who had died of AIDS. Knowing this the reader gets to experience what the walk entailed, over a 4 year period and a Father’s grief for the loss of his daughter. Obviously proud and loving of his daughter it transpires he had a difficult relationship with her, was a man out of touch with the times and carried a certain amount of regret. But overall I was educated, moved and touched by his account.
Read it and I think you will also enjoy the events and places he describes and be moved by a man motivated by grief and regret but overwhelmingly by love. But be prepared for a man of his times who would now, even more than when the book was written, be very much at odds with today’ mores and social sensibilities.
July 13, 2023
Written, perhaps even a bit overwritten, by an immensely literate and too-human, but accomplished, man. I was unaware at the outset that this would be much more than a travel story, by a complex author. It is about the pilgrimage, yes, but also the journey he made through the loss of his adult daughter. Their relationship was foggy throughout, his religious ideals rather sketch, his family neglected, and yet he wrote a very intense, emotional, wildeyed, in awe of life memoir.
October 13, 2021
I really enjoyed reading someone else's experience of walking the Camino but the sexism, classism, racism of this author was *very* jarring. I appreciate this book for what it did offer generously but I would like to have been able to challenge Luard face-to-face in some pilgrim hostel about his narrow-mindedness and prejudice.
March 24, 2017
A Very poignant history of the author's relationship with his eldest daughter and her imminent death from HIV/Aids
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews