On Walking:- And Stalking Sebald

by Phil Smith

This is not the first walk in the footsteps of W.G. Sebald, whose The Rings of Saturn was an account of his walk round Suffolk 20 years ago. But Phil Smith's own walk soon becomes quite as extraordinary as Sebald's and he matches Sebald's erudition, originality and humour swathe for swathe. On one level On Walking describes an actual, lumbering walk from one incongruous B&B to the next, taking in Dunwich, Lowestoft, Southwold, Covehithe, Orford Ness, Sutton Hoo, Bungay and Rendlesham Forest - with their lost villages, Cold War testing sites, black dogs, white deer and alien trails. On a second level it sets out a unique kind of walking that the author has been practising for many years and for which he is quietly famous. It's a kind of walking that burrows beneath the guidebook and the map, looks beyond the shopfront and Tudor facade and feels beneath the blisters and disgruntlement of the everyday. Those who try it report that their walking [and their whole way of seeing the world] is never quite the same again. And the Suffolk walk described in this book is an exemplary walk, a case study - this is exactly how to do it. And on a third level, On Walking is an intellectual tour de force, encompassing Situationism, alchemy, jouissance, dancing, geology, psychogeography, 20th century cinema and old TV, performance, architecture, the nature of grief, pilgrimage, World War II, the Cold War, Uzumaki, pub conversations, synchronicity, somatics and the Underchalk.

Genres: Walking

198 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2014

About the author

Associate Professor of Humanities and Performing Arts at Plymouth University.

Also publishes under the pseudonym The Crab Man.

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars!

REVIEW OF PAPERBACK EDITION

“All the time we have the chance to meet extraordinary folk, but they do not necessarily immediately appear exceptional.”

Mythogeography, psychogeography or as me and my mates used to call it back in the day…going for a walk. This reminds us that there is a very fine line between pointless rambling and worthwhile diversion, I mean this both in the verbal and physical sense. Smith stumbles upon some interesting bits and pieces, but he can also come across as a dull bore too, and with each turn of the page you never know which way it will go, which I suppose is all part of the fun.

I've read a fair amount of these books and this is not one of the more engaging ones, but still it can be interesting in places, but too often Smith ends up down one blind alley after another talking absolute nonsense about something or someone obscure, sometimes from centuries ago.

[Lucya Szachnowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about a psychogeography walk in Sussex, following in the footsteps of Sebald's The Rings of Saturn. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it.