Great British Journeys

by Nicholas Crane

Nick picks eight of the most interesting traveller-chroniclers to have explored and reported on the state of the nation from Gerald of Wales who embarked on a seven week journey around the wild perimeter of Wales in March 1188 to HV Morton, the journalist and travel writer who crossed the length and breadth of England by car in the 1920s. Others include Celia Fiennes who started her many journeys around Britain on horseback in the late 1600s at the age of 20, Tudor antiquarian John Leland, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett, Thomas Pennant, and William Gilpin, who travelled through the north of England by boat in 1770. 1. Gerald of Wales 1188 /Wales;2. John Leland 1534-43/England & Wales; 3. Celia Fiennes 1682-1712/England; 4. Daniel Defoe 1724-26/Britain;5. William Gilpin 1770-2/North England; 6. Thomas Pennant 1772/Wales & Scotland; 7. William Cobbett 1822-26/S England; 8. HV Morton 1927/England

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History, Walking

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2007

About the author

Distilled from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas... accessed 07-Aug-2012:

Nicholas Crane (born 6 May 1954) is an English geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster was born in Hastings, East Sussex, but grew up in Norfolk. He attended Wymondham College from 1967 until 1972, then Cambridgeshire College of Arts & Technology (CCAT), a forerunner to Anglia Ruskin University, where he studied Geography.

In his youth he went camping and hiking with his father and explored Norfolk by bicycle which gave him his enthusiasm for exploration. In 1986 he located the pole of inaccessibility for the Eurasia landmass travelling with his cousin Richard; their journey being the subject of the book “Journey to the Centre of the Earth.”

He married Annabel Huxley in 1991. They live in Chalk Farm in north-west London and have three children.

In 1992/3 he embarked on an 18-month solo journey, walking 10,000 kilometres from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul. He recounted that expedition in his book “Clear Waters Rising: A Mountain Walk Across Europe” which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 1997. He made a television self-documentary of the journey in “High Trails to Istanbul” (1994).

Together with Richard Crane he was awarded the 1992 Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his journeys in Tibet, China, Afghanistan and Africa.

His 2000 book “Two Degrees West” described his walk across Great Britain in which he followed the eponymous meridian as closely as possible. More recently he published a biography of Gerard Mercator, the great Flemish cartographer.

In November 2007 he debated the future of the English countryside with Richard Girling, Sue Clifford, Richard Mabey and Bill Bryson as part of CPRE's annual Volunteers Conference

Since 2004 he has written and presented four notable television series for BBC Two: Coast, Great British Journeys, Map Man and Town.

Reviews

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicholas Crane is an interesting author and tv presenter. This book was a tie-in with a BBC TV series of the same name and it features Crane recreating notable historic tours around parts of Great Britain. Although the journeys are educational and enjoyable, I would have preferred there to be much more detail included of the modern trips. It often felt like just a regurgitation of the written diaries of Fiennes,Gillingham,Cobbet and others.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems a good idea for a television series, and for a book to go with it. The television series, which I did not see, may have been very good. This book may be better read as an adjunct to the programmes, but by itself it is rather dry.

Nevertheless, it seems to be a useful biographical source for the people whose journeys are described, and it seems to provide a good impression of what travel in Britain was like at the times when the journeys were made.

[Stephen Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The TV series showed an eclectic collection of landmark journeys exploring Britain across eight centuries, and Nicholas Crane retracing parts of them.

In the book, with much more space and time to play with, he seems sometimes a little lost - is he describing the historic journey, or his own journey, or describing how the landscape has changed? The journeys themselves are generally very interesting, and there is lots of fascinating stuff here, but it does suffer from that split personality problem. Nevertheless, an interesting account bringing to life some truly intrepid explorers of this country.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful historical account, following the journeys of early English travellers and would be a good introduction to reading the writings of the travellers themselves. I would have liked to have been told a bit more about Nicholas Crane's adventures as well.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone would think by reading the blurb and the front page illustrations, plus from previous views of Mr. Crane on British TV that this book would be about previous British Journeys through history AND the same journeys done by Nicholas. Sadly there is a 80% lack of the detail of his journeys. He occasionally comments, one historical set of journeys has no mention of the modern day equivalent (and we're talking about southern England, not the wilds of NW Scotland). The photos included show the red Kagool with rolled up brolly in evidence but there is insufficient text written by Nicholas himself. So I am disappointed with that aspect. The historial set of journeys are interesting to read. There was a TV series of this book, with Nic Crane in action, and perhaps a travel / history genre is better as a TV programme rather than a book. Perhaps he should stick to presenting TV series rather than writing.

[Alison Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the TV series which I enjoyed but have only now got round to reading the accompanying book. I think some of the journeys worked better when you had the visual support of the tv program, especially those which were really landscape driven. Others like Celia Fiennes, Daniel Defoe, Thomas Pennant and William Cobbett were enhanced by the extra background provided by the book. It also helped that 3 of these (not Pennant) travellers were describing parts of the country I was more familiar with. Of course this is down to me. Over 700 years of travels in Great Britain and it only confirms my thought that there is still so much to see here now and you don’t have to go to the other side of the world to see new interesting places.

[Eleanor Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book where I think the TV series was actually better. He says that John Leyland needed a map instead of words, and I think the TV series helped with visualising the routes of this book too. 

On the plus side in the book Crane can give a lot more information about the histories of the various writers he's following. I think he has some favourites: I think he likes Daniel Defoe, respects Celia Feines, and enjoys the countryside and approach that Thomas Pennant took. I felt those three got the best chapters as a result. 

It's an interesting way of exploring history with a geographical twist.

[Chris Turnbull · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collage of British history, geography and literature, taken from travelogues over 900 years. Easy to read and encourages one to investigate the original works such as The Tour by Daniel Defoe. He compares the places as they were and as they are now and gives one a hunger to see for oneself.

[Julian Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

History, nature, geography and exploration cleverly combined to create a series of adventures across the ages as different people were driven to explore the length and breadth of the British Isles.

A very satisfying and informative read.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uninspiring writing scattered with some interesting anecdotes

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photos.

Interesting history.

Writing less than gripping.

Editing pretty abysmal. Spelling errors and typos abound--the most grievous is "Briatin". How that got past any editor I am at a loss to fathom. Some errors make for confusion such as discussing a train opening up Skye to outsiders by the opening of a line "to Kyle of Localsh in 1870 (and to Kyle of Localsh in 1897)" or something like that. No matter how many times I re-read that I could make no sense of it.

[Connor Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Nicholas Crane follow in the footsteps of Britain’s, British explorers. He retraces the route of Gerald of Wales, John Leland, Celia Fiennes, Daniel Defoe, Thomas Pennant, William Corbbett and H.V. Morton.

This is a book of fantastic travel writing, fascinating history and is topped of with some exceptional photography.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written book especially the chapters on danel defoe and celia fiennes..travellers without modern day navigational gps systems etc