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Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
‘The premise of this book is simple, or that is what it seemed when I started.’
Peter Fiennes follows in the footsteps of twelve inspirational writers, bringing modern Britain into focus by peering through the lens of the past.
The journey starts in Dorset, shaped by the childhood visions of Enid Blyton, and ends with Charles Dickens on the train that took him to his final resting place in Westminster Abbey.
From the wilds of Skye and Snowdon, to a big night out in Birmingham with J. B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge, Footnotes is a series of evocative biographies, a lyrical foray into the past, and a quest to understand Britain through the books, journals and diaries of some of our greatest writers.
And as Fiennes travels the country, and roams across the centuries, he wonders:
‘Who are we? What do we want? They seemed like good questions to ask, in the company of some of our greatest writers, given these restless times.’
Peter Fiennes follows in the footsteps of twelve inspirational writers, bringing modern Britain into focus by peering through the lens of the past.
The journey starts in Dorset, shaped by the childhood visions of Enid Blyton, and ends with Charles Dickens on the train that took him to his final resting place in Westminster Abbey.
From the wilds of Skye and Snowdon, to a big night out in Birmingham with J. B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge, Footnotes is a series of evocative biographies, a lyrical foray into the past, and a quest to understand Britain through the books, journals and diaries of some of our greatest writers.
And as Fiennes travels the country, and roams across the centuries, he wonders:
‘Who are we? What do we want? They seemed like good questions to ask, in the company of some of our greatest writers, given these restless times.’
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2019
34 people are currently reading
422 people want to read
About the author
Peter Fiennes
20 books15 followersPeter Fiennes is the author of To War with God, an account of his grandfather's service as a chaplain in the First World War. As publisher for Time Out, he published their city guides, as well as books about London's trees and Britain's countryside.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
December 13, 2023
Some odd “traveling author” choices in order for Peter Fiennes to do his literary relay around Britain. It was his idea to follow his selected writers on their trips to various places handing the baton off to the next writer in the ring around Britain. There are some of the usual greats such as Dickens as well as the odd and barely known traveling monk or eccentric single woman traveler from a time that just wasn’t done.
Fiennes is absorbed with loss of old Britain and sometimes romantic fancy. He is easily distracted by his own interests, hops on the soapbox and lets fly. Sometimes as he freely admits he leaves the author’s roads such as when he visits to the east of Johnson and Boswell’s Scottish trip in order to meet with a group interested in tree reforesting (Johnson had grumbled about lack of trees in Scotland).
In any case I’d give the book 3 1/2 stars by the usual standard that 3 is good but not exceptionally good and 2 is not so good. I was always entertained but not knocked out. I thought it was sometimes fanciful but good for dishing the dirt on some of your old favorites.
Fiennes is absorbed with loss of old Britain and sometimes romantic fancy. He is easily distracted by his own interests, hops on the soapbox and lets fly. Sometimes as he freely admits he leaves the author’s roads such as when he visits to the east of Johnson and Boswell’s Scottish trip in order to meet with a group interested in tree reforesting (Johnson had grumbled about lack of trees in Scotland).
In any case I’d give the book 3 1/2 stars by the usual standard that 3 is good but not exceptionally good and 2 is not so good. I was always entertained but not knocked out. I thought it was sometimes fanciful but good for dishing the dirt on some of your old favorites.
October 2, 2019
In Footnotes, the author Peter Fiennes takes a literary trip around Britain as he follows in the footsteps of some of his favourite writers looking at how the cities and landscapes have changed over time. The writers are quite a disparate bunch writing in different time periods, including the 12-13th century (Gerald of Wales), 17th-18th century (Celia Fiennes, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson), 19th century (Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins) and 20th century (Enid Blyton, Beryl Bainbridge).
This is an interesting and original idea for a book marrying history with landscape and great writing. Fiennes writes passionately in defense of preserving Britain's woodlands and wildlife (I didn't know that in addition to red squirrels and wolves, beavers were also hunted to extinction 400 years ago in Britain and are now being reintroduced). While Fiennes is a talented writer himself, writing with humour and sharing many wonderful anecdotes, there are parts of the book that felt a bit rushed. The sections I enjoyed most were where he spent a little more time at the locations exploring the thoughts of each writer and perhaps the scope of the book could have been narrowed to cover fewer authors or to focus more in depth on a smaller region. My digital ARC did not include the maps that will be available in the published version of this book and these should be very useful for following Fiennes travels and adding to the experience.
With thanks to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for a digital ARC to read.
This is an interesting and original idea for a book marrying history with landscape and great writing. Fiennes writes passionately in defense of preserving Britain's woodlands and wildlife (I didn't know that in addition to red squirrels and wolves, beavers were also hunted to extinction 400 years ago in Britain and are now being reintroduced). While Fiennes is a talented writer himself, writing with humour and sharing many wonderful anecdotes, there are parts of the book that felt a bit rushed. The sections I enjoyed most were where he spent a little more time at the locations exploring the thoughts of each writer and perhaps the scope of the book could have been narrowed to cover fewer authors or to focus more in depth on a smaller region. My digital ARC did not include the maps that will be available in the published version of this book and these should be very useful for following Fiennes travels and adding to the experience.
With thanks to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for a digital ARC to read.
September 5, 2019
Footnotes seamlessly combines autobiographical information, nature writing and follows the paths of some of the finest writers to have ever lived; this original and potent mix had me captivated for the entirety of the book. I mean, this amalgamation of two of my favourite topics: the natural world and the history of Britain through the eyes of writers such as Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens - what could be better? I very much enjoyed the fact that it was entertaining as Fiennes's writing is full of pep and pizazz and his observational skill is a joy to behold. If I'm honest I didn't have a clue whether this would work as a book or not but luckily the author knows exactly how to engage you and immerse you in the times and places he explores throughout.
I appreciated this so much that I was sad when I came to the end; I feel this could become a series as I'm sure a lot of people, including myself, would read the follow-ups and there are certainly plenty of other authors who could be featured. You can tell just how enthused Fiennes is about both nature and literature as this is a well-researched, beautifully written lit-travelogue. I enjoyed that quite a few of the authors were obscure as a lot of other books tend to cover the most famous, so this was refreshing. It is also a very accessible and eminently readable book I feel a lot of readers would delight in. A must-read for nature and lit connoisseurs. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.
I appreciated this so much that I was sad when I came to the end; I feel this could become a series as I'm sure a lot of people, including myself, would read the follow-ups and there are certainly plenty of other authors who could be featured. You can tell just how enthused Fiennes is about both nature and literature as this is a well-researched, beautifully written lit-travelogue. I enjoyed that quite a few of the authors were obscure as a lot of other books tend to cover the most famous, so this was refreshing. It is also a very accessible and eminently readable book I feel a lot of readers would delight in. A must-read for nature and lit connoisseurs. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.
October 19, 2019
Footnotes has been quite a journey around Britain following the travels of earlier journal writers, quite literally, sometimes on foot, other times by car or train as Fiennes’ forebears traveled by foot, horseback, carriage, and railway. To finish his journey, the author provides what seems a perfect summing up by taking the train route that Dickens’ body rode for his final trip to London for burial.
But much happens prior to that final ride. Throughout these travels, Fiennes provides insights into these earlier writers thoughts of their times, the places they visited—with quotes, and also gave biographical and historical information to better place them in their surroundings. I knew of several of the subjects, such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Samuel Johnson, Enid Blyton, James Boswell, and Beryl Bainbridge. But several of these I knew little beyond their name and one other fact. The total unknowns for me were Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes (a very distant relative of the author), Gerald of Wales, Edith Somervilfe, Violet ‘Martin’ Ross, and J.B. Priestly.
Each of these individuals has left a record or journal of travels around Britain. Celia Fiennes, 1662-1741, was known for having traveled through every English county in spite of the poor roads of the time. She didn’t travel to Scotland which was considered too uncivilized at that time. Her papers were apparently passed down in family.
Bainbridge actually recreates Priestly’s 1933 travels in 1983. And Fiennes recreates them again, sometimes finding the same hotel or pub still available. But Fiennes has added many other layers, with reports such as those from as early as the 12th century, from Gerald of Wales who wrote of journeys in Wales and his hopes to become bishop. So much here! It actually is difficult to know when to stop.
To return to the final trip into London, Fiennes writes of what the journey feels like.
He spent his life journeying to and from the city and he made his
characters do the same.... How big can London grow? There’s almost
nothing Dickens would recognize... Where is the squalor that Dickens
wrote about? It’s not here. Not the kind he knew... More tunnels. More
houses. There is no end or beginning or beginning to London. Just
streets and bridges and...playing fields... We ride into London and its
death-dealing air. In a great vista of new housing, stretching down to
the Thames and away to the south, it is only the old pubs and
churches, and sometimes the warehouses that survive... At Greenwich
station there is an upsurge of energy on the platform, of the kind
Dickens needed and fed upon... The streets start to narrow and
crowd. At last this is something that Dickens would recognize: tight
little lanes, pubs, dark buildings, black railway arches, a firestorm of
graffiti...and here we are, clanking into London Bridge and on for
Charing Cross... *
I do recommend this book for those who enjoy travel writing with historical and literary overlay, as well as more background on some British writers. Anglophiles should enjoy this. There is a brief biographical sketch of each subject provided at the end of the book. In addition there is an extensive bibliography of travel, literary and historical books also provided which I plan to return to.
*Note: as I am quoting from an advanced reader’s copy, it is possible that changes may have been made prior to publication.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
But much happens prior to that final ride. Throughout these travels, Fiennes provides insights into these earlier writers thoughts of their times, the places they visited—with quotes, and also gave biographical and historical information to better place them in their surroundings. I knew of several of the subjects, such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Samuel Johnson, Enid Blyton, James Boswell, and Beryl Bainbridge. But several of these I knew little beyond their name and one other fact. The total unknowns for me were Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes (a very distant relative of the author), Gerald of Wales, Edith Somervilfe, Violet ‘Martin’ Ross, and J.B. Priestly.
Each of these individuals has left a record or journal of travels around Britain. Celia Fiennes, 1662-1741, was known for having traveled through every English county in spite of the poor roads of the time. She didn’t travel to Scotland which was considered too uncivilized at that time. Her papers were apparently passed down in family.
Bainbridge actually recreates Priestly’s 1933 travels in 1983. And Fiennes recreates them again, sometimes finding the same hotel or pub still available. But Fiennes has added many other layers, with reports such as those from as early as the 12th century, from Gerald of Wales who wrote of journeys in Wales and his hopes to become bishop. So much here! It actually is difficult to know when to stop.
To return to the final trip into London, Fiennes writes of what the journey feels like.
He spent his life journeying to and from the city and he made his
characters do the same.... How big can London grow? There’s almost
nothing Dickens would recognize... Where is the squalor that Dickens
wrote about? It’s not here. Not the kind he knew... More tunnels. More
houses. There is no end or beginning or beginning to London. Just
streets and bridges and...playing fields... We ride into London and its
death-dealing air. In a great vista of new housing, stretching down to
the Thames and away to the south, it is only the old pubs and
churches, and sometimes the warehouses that survive... At Greenwich
station there is an upsurge of energy on the platform, of the kind
Dickens needed and fed upon... The streets start to narrow and
crowd. At last this is something that Dickens would recognize: tight
little lanes, pubs, dark buildings, black railway arches, a firestorm of
graffiti...and here we are, clanking into London Bridge and on for
Charing Cross... *
I do recommend this book for those who enjoy travel writing with historical and literary overlay, as well as more background on some British writers. Anglophiles should enjoy this. There is a brief biographical sketch of each subject provided at the end of the book. In addition there is an extensive bibliography of travel, literary and historical books also provided which I plan to return to.
*Note: as I am quoting from an advanced reader’s copy, it is possible that changes may have been made prior to publication.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
February 1, 2021
We have a rich and long literary history in this country and whichever part of the country that you start in you can find an author and a little bit of history behind them to explain the context. In Footnotes, Peter Fiennes has chosen a dozen of his favourite authors to write about and travel to the places that they are best known in.
Starting in my home county of Dorset with the famous children’s writer Enid Blyton. Standing on the seafront in Swanage in a brutally cold wind, he imagines her in one of her books describing the weather as ‘lovely’. She was a complicated character and some of her books could be described as controversial in our more enlightened times. It was a place that she fell in love with after a day trip there from Bournemouth, and when you read some of her books you can sense the presence of the Purbecks.
His next author is Wilkie Collins and this part of Fiennes grand tour takes him to Cornwall. Collins was there to write a travel book set in Cornwall and he had got as far as Plymouth on the new-fangled railway, he would then have to rely on coaches after the boat across the Tamar. He stays with Colins in the next chapter and journey from Lamorna Cove to Launceston and is joined by Ithell Colquhoun, author of The Living Stones. There are no blue plaques celebrating her, unlike a lot of the other artists who were based here, but they do find where her hut was. It is very different from the corrugated iron shack she lived in though. Wending his way up the North cast he tops at Tintagel and has a heart-stopping moment crossing the slender bridge to get to the island.
He then heads on to Hereford, this time accompanied by Celia Fiennes, who is a distant relation of his. But as he points out you don’t have to go very far back up the family tree to see that we are much more interrelated than people think. She was moving around the West Country in 1698 where they had long miles and it was a time when very few people knew how far they were travelling and when they could expect to arrive. From Hereford, it is easy to cross the border into Wales and the earliest author in this book, Gerald of Wales. Gerald was part Welsh and in one of his books he spends half of it praising the people of the country and the later half denouncing the people. Heading to North Wales he is following Edith Somerville and Violet ‘Martin’ Ross and joins them struggling up Snowdon. They had discovered a demand for travel journalism and this was a Welsh jaunt to write and make some money.
Next Fiennes heads to the Midlands and is tracing the routes of J.B Priestly and Beryl Bainbridge from Birmingham to Liverpool. They had taken similar routes, but five decades apart and had both written books called, English Journey. He has a trip around the Cadbury factory whilst feeling slightly delicate after a night in a pub. Wilkie Collins is back again, but this time accompanying Dickens on a train journey to Cumberland and they undertake an almost disastrous climb of Carrock Fell. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are the two authors that he has chosen for a brief visit to Scotland. Johnson had been invited by Boswell to visit for ages and was always too busy, but he relented and suddenly decided he wanted to see one of the last wildernesses in the UK. Heading south, Fiennes joins J.B Priestly and Beryl Bainbridge again in Newcastle. He bumps briefly into Celia Fiennes before heading to London and finally Kent to meet with Dickens again.
This book feels like a homage to his formative years as a reader rediscovering his favourite authors. But it is more than that, at its heart, it is a travel book as he moves around the country in the virtual company of his chosen writers and intertwined with this is history and a snapshot of modern Britain. It is a gentle and relaxed form of travel too; he is not in a rush to get to the next place and it gives him time to mull things over and discover those nuggets of information about the places he is staying and his virtual companions. Well worth reading.
Starting in my home county of Dorset with the famous children’s writer Enid Blyton. Standing on the seafront in Swanage in a brutally cold wind, he imagines her in one of her books describing the weather as ‘lovely’. She was a complicated character and some of her books could be described as controversial in our more enlightened times. It was a place that she fell in love with after a day trip there from Bournemouth, and when you read some of her books you can sense the presence of the Purbecks.
His next author is Wilkie Collins and this part of Fiennes grand tour takes him to Cornwall. Collins was there to write a travel book set in Cornwall and he had got as far as Plymouth on the new-fangled railway, he would then have to rely on coaches after the boat across the Tamar. He stays with Colins in the next chapter and journey from Lamorna Cove to Launceston and is joined by Ithell Colquhoun, author of The Living Stones. There are no blue plaques celebrating her, unlike a lot of the other artists who were based here, but they do find where her hut was. It is very different from the corrugated iron shack she lived in though. Wending his way up the North cast he tops at Tintagel and has a heart-stopping moment crossing the slender bridge to get to the island.
He then heads on to Hereford, this time accompanied by Celia Fiennes, who is a distant relation of his. But as he points out you don’t have to go very far back up the family tree to see that we are much more interrelated than people think. She was moving around the West Country in 1698 where they had long miles and it was a time when very few people knew how far they were travelling and when they could expect to arrive. From Hereford, it is easy to cross the border into Wales and the earliest author in this book, Gerald of Wales. Gerald was part Welsh and in one of his books he spends half of it praising the people of the country and the later half denouncing the people. Heading to North Wales he is following Edith Somerville and Violet ‘Martin’ Ross and joins them struggling up Snowdon. They had discovered a demand for travel journalism and this was a Welsh jaunt to write and make some money.
Next Fiennes heads to the Midlands and is tracing the routes of J.B Priestly and Beryl Bainbridge from Birmingham to Liverpool. They had taken similar routes, but five decades apart and had both written books called, English Journey. He has a trip around the Cadbury factory whilst feeling slightly delicate after a night in a pub. Wilkie Collins is back again, but this time accompanying Dickens on a train journey to Cumberland and they undertake an almost disastrous climb of Carrock Fell. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are the two authors that he has chosen for a brief visit to Scotland. Johnson had been invited by Boswell to visit for ages and was always too busy, but he relented and suddenly decided he wanted to see one of the last wildernesses in the UK. Heading south, Fiennes joins J.B Priestly and Beryl Bainbridge again in Newcastle. He bumps briefly into Celia Fiennes before heading to London and finally Kent to meet with Dickens again.
This book feels like a homage to his formative years as a reader rediscovering his favourite authors. But it is more than that, at its heart, it is a travel book as he moves around the country in the virtual company of his chosen writers and intertwined with this is history and a snapshot of modern Britain. It is a gentle and relaxed form of travel too; he is not in a rush to get to the next place and it gives him time to mull things over and discover those nuggets of information about the places he is staying and his virtual companions. Well worth reading.
January 31, 2020
I was fascinated with this book! It took longer than I anticipated , as I was eager to look up pictures of the places and writers that, intrigued me. I learned that, the writer of the book is indeed concerned about forestry, animal extinction, and corporate capitalism to name a few. I loved the maps, quotes, and the mention of myths and magic. I learned a few words while reading like prig, kaif, and pogonophobia. I was distraught trying to find a picture of ‘Nighton’s Kieve’ only to discover it was really St Necton’s Glen Waterfall. Oh, I should have read further and I did! I laughed throughout and thought it very creative to see how the title of the book was decided upon in the text. Ending with Dickens and Poets Corner was rewarding in its own way. Definitely, a must read for anyone who loves literature, history, and England.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2019
This is a wonderful read, combining a deep appreciation of landscape and cityscape with the lives and work of several, very different, authors. Peter Fiennes follows in the footsteps of writers and travellers as diverse as Samuel Johnson, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, JB Priestley, Beryl Bainbridge and Enid Blyton on journeys around England, Wales and Scotland, reflecting on how places have changed and whether that change might be for the better or the worse. He includes some fascinating background detail about his chosen authors, some of them completely unfamiliar to me (Edith Somerville and Martin Ross really caught my attention), and describes his own experiences in a charming, pithy manner that appealed to me enormously. His love of his country and his love of literature shine through every page. Terrifically well written and researched, this is a book I’m bound to return to next time I’m passing close to one of his paths. Highly recommended.
With thanks to Oneworld Publications via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
With thanks to Oneworld Publications via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
January 20, 2020
Enjoyable, amusing and entertaining, but I got to the end and didn't really feel I was any the wiser. Using a series of authors connecting a journey around Britain is an interesting twist on the seminal English Journey by J B Priestley, and Priestley does get a good reference in Footnotes, as does Beryl Bainbridge who repeated his journey, 50 years on. All this gives Fiennes opportunities to reference and quote, which largely makes you want to read the originals. A couple of writers I'd not heard of, which was mildly interesting, and a large opening section on Enid Blyton, which was also illuminating. I knew nothing about her, apart from growing up reading her books. I'm happy to have read Footnotes, as I am increasingly intrigued by this sub-genre of travel writing, an opportunity to scratch the social scabs that have made this country what it now is, but this is not one of the better entries. And yet, it does show that the many problems we face have been around for a long time.
August 12, 2019
Footnotes follows writer Peter Fiennes on a trip round parts of England, Wales and Scotland as he follows in the steps of other authors. Drawing on a range of time frames and personalities this is quite a varied book including Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens, Boswell and Johnson as well as JB Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge. A mixture of travel writing, biographies, history and a look at the changes within Britain (with plenty of anecdotes thrown in for good measure) Fiennes successfully crams a lot into just over 300 pages.
I found reading this book was like returning to university and listening to a lecturer who is very passionate about their subject try and give you as much information in one small time frame as possible, with plenty of asides, jokes and anecdotes to try and make their subject as interesting to everyone else as it is to themselves. In many ways this really worked as the book was enjoyable, humorous in places, gave quite a bit of food for thought for reader to decide whether to pursue or not and debate further. However it did a times feel a little bit too squashed together and the links and parallels between writers mentioned did at times feel forced. Having finished it I think perhaps halving the number of authors followed to really focus on them would have worked better as I felt Fiennes probably had a lot more to say. However nevertheless an interesting and slightly alternative bit of travel writing.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I found reading this book was like returning to university and listening to a lecturer who is very passionate about their subject try and give you as much information in one small time frame as possible, with plenty of asides, jokes and anecdotes to try and make their subject as interesting to everyone else as it is to themselves. In many ways this really worked as the book was enjoyable, humorous in places, gave quite a bit of food for thought for reader to decide whether to pursue or not and debate further. However it did a times feel a little bit too squashed together and the links and parallels between writers mentioned did at times feel forced. Having finished it I think perhaps halving the number of authors followed to really focus on them would have worked better as I felt Fiennes probably had a lot more to say. However nevertheless an interesting and slightly alternative bit of travel writing.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 23, 2024
In this entertaining and occasionally surprising travelogue, Peter Fiennes follows in the footsteps of a raggle-taggle group of literary voyagers from the past. It’s an odd mix of characters and there’s something Chaucerian about the motley band he chooses, which includes, among others, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Boswell and Johnson, J. B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge, but also lesser-known characters like the medieval chronicler Gerald of Wales, Edith Somerville and Violet ‘Martin’ Ross (joint authors of the Adventures of an Irish RM stories), and, least likely of all, Enid Blyton. That most intrepid of all literary travellers, and the author’s distant ancestor, Celia Fiennes also gets a deserved chapter. All in all, the approach works surprisingly well, and Footnotes is a thoroughly enjoyable armchair journey in the company of a knowledgeable and entertaining tour guide and his several reporters on the scene.
October 3, 2019
The author travels around Britain starting with Enid Blyton's possible locations for her stories, in the south of England. Moving through other authors, all historical and /or literary types, from a Welsh man of the twelfth and thirteenth century to Dickens and Somerville and Ross. He does look at the lie of the land, the kind of housing, how it appears today and would have looked to the authors. Fiennes shows himself capable of strong descriptive writing, so I'm disappointed that the book begins "It is April..." The reader will learn a great deal and may be inspired to tour.
Provided a reader is desperately keen to learn about the featured writers, they should enjoy the book. But I thought the author spent too long on some authors, especially Blyton, who has been been well covered by memoirs and film and doesn't seem to have been that pleasant. Instead of dwelling on her, why not fit in a visit to Miss Beatrix Potter? Why no visit to a Scots distillery in the company of Iain Banks? No pack pony ride across Bodmin Moor with Daphne duMaurier? I am sure we could all pick favourites, but Fiennes, entitled to his own choices, does seem to have narrowed the field too much for readers to be entirely pleased.
A map was promised to come, in my ARC; I also thought the book could do with some photos, but none are mentioned. Bibliography P323 - 330 and resources P330 -333.
Provided a reader is desperately keen to learn about the featured writers, they should enjoy the book. But I thought the author spent too long on some authors, especially Blyton, who has been been well covered by memoirs and film and doesn't seem to have been that pleasant. Instead of dwelling on her, why not fit in a visit to Miss Beatrix Potter? Why no visit to a Scots distillery in the company of Iain Banks? No pack pony ride across Bodmin Moor with Daphne duMaurier? I am sure we could all pick favourites, but Fiennes, entitled to his own choices, does seem to have narrowed the field too much for readers to be entirely pleased.
A map was promised to come, in my ARC; I also thought the book could do with some photos, but none are mentioned. Bibliography P323 - 330 and resources P330 -333.
October 15, 2019
Informative, interesting and entertaining, this travelogue by Peter Fiennes finds him travelling in the footsteps of writers through the ages who also travelled around Britain – from Enid Blyton to Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens to Beryl Bainbridge. As he recreates their journeys, he gives some biographical information about them and quotes from their own impressions of Britain. He explores how places have changed, and how, in some cases they have remained very much the same, and his observations and insights are both illuminating and often amusing. His own appreciation of the natural world comes over clearly, as does his admiration for those travellers who came before him. He waxes a bit too lyrical about Dickens towards the end of the book, but as this is very much a record of his own enthusiasm for exploring Britain through the eyes of these writers it didn’t impinge too much on the narrative. It’s really a book for just about anyone – for those who enjoy travel writing or social history or literature or nature or a combination of all of these and overall is a great read.
August 22, 2023
The subtitle says it all: it’s a travelog around Britain, and mini-biographies of dead British writers Peter Fiennes picked for his journey. Charming in some places, boring in others. Dead British writers I find interesting: 1. Enid Blyton (no, Peter Fiennes does not think she was an awful person) 2. Violet Florence Martin and Edith Somerville, the Anglo-Irish women writer duo (apparently they were not lesbians).
The author repeatedly used “the shifting baseline syndrome” to describe how we feel about our environment today and what would be like during the dead writers’ days. I can not agree more.
The author repeatedly used “the shifting baseline syndrome” to describe how we feel about our environment today and what would be like during the dead writers’ days. I can not agree more.
March 27, 2020
From concept through to execution, this is an interesting, charming read that manages to be both empathetic and insightful. The writing was fluid and blended quotes and prose into a cohesive blend of profile, historical description, and commentary.
Very enjoyable.
Very enjoyable.
November 18, 2022
An enjoyable book. Fiennes is not a sparkling stylist but is enthusiastic and opinionated in an appealing way.
December 16, 2019
Informative and interesting -- two things that do not always go hand in hand -- this is the epitome of a quirky travel narrative, which I love, as well as a biography of several venerable English writers, which I also love.
The beginning section on Enid Blyton is a triumph, enthralling and satisfying to anyone who grew up with her works (and must now constantly examine their own attitudes as a result), while the fondness I developed for travel writers now long-dead, having travelled with them alongside the amusingly dry-witted Peter Fiennes, is an added bonus. And I have been meaning to read some Wilke Collins for years now -- I certainly will do so now.
Highly recommended!
The beginning section on Enid Blyton is a triumph, enthralling and satisfying to anyone who grew up with her works (and must now constantly examine their own attitudes as a result), while the fondness I developed for travel writers now long-dead, having travelled with them alongside the amusingly dry-witted Peter Fiennes, is an added bonus. And I have been meaning to read some Wilke Collins for years now -- I certainly will do so now.
Highly recommended!
September 15, 2019
Peter Fiennes's Footnotes is subtitled 'A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers'. Given the title, I had been expecting the journey to be on foot, but in fact although there is some walking (including a walk up Snowdon in a fog, which exactly mirrors my experience when we climbed Snowdon some years ago) the writers in whose footsteps Fiennes is following use a variety of modes of transport, particularly horseback and train, while Fiennes's journey is mainly by car. He starts in Swanage, Enid Blyton's preferred holiday destination and the inspiration for the fantasy Devon of her books, all cream teas, smugglers' caves and lashings of ginger beer; he then moves on to Cornwall, where he follows Wilkie Collins and the surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun around the coast. The seventeenth-century diarist Celia Fiennes' journey takes him from Launceston to the Welsh borders; he then follows medieval cleric Gerald of Wales through South Wales and the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Anglo-Irish writers Edith Somerville and Violet 'Martin' Ross through North Wales. Returning to England, J.B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge take him to Birmingham, Bradford and Liverpool, and Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to the Lake District and Doncaster. He follows Boswell and Johnson around Scotland before returning to Priestley and Bainbridge who take him from Newcastle to Lincoln, and then, finally, he shares Dickens' final journey from his home in Gad's Hill to Westminster Abbey.
Fiennes's narrative merges together background information on the authors he has chosen to follow, many of them writers who are not particularly well-known, and key facts about their journeys, with his own observations as he follows in their footsteps, and, linking them, a meditation on the ways in which Britain has changed over the centuries; what has been lost, what has been gained, and the impossibility of ever really quantifying this. It's a interesting and thought-provoking book, and also a very enjoyable one, as Fiennes has a chatty, self-deprecating style which makes his narrative a pleasure to read. I very much appreciated that he managed to include equal numbers of women and men among the authors he follows (which can't have been that easy to do, given the male dominance of the travel genre) and now very much want to seek out the writing of some of the ones I hadn't previously encountered, in particualar Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes and Somerville and Ross.
(Because I had an e-ARC for review, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, I can't comment on the maps and illustrations, though a quick glance at the hardback in the gorgeous Highland Bookshop in Fort William suggests that it is also a beautifully presented book.)
Fiennes's narrative merges together background information on the authors he has chosen to follow, many of them writers who are not particularly well-known, and key facts about their journeys, with his own observations as he follows in their footsteps, and, linking them, a meditation on the ways in which Britain has changed over the centuries; what has been lost, what has been gained, and the impossibility of ever really quantifying this. It's a interesting and thought-provoking book, and also a very enjoyable one, as Fiennes has a chatty, self-deprecating style which makes his narrative a pleasure to read. I very much appreciated that he managed to include equal numbers of women and men among the authors he follows (which can't have been that easy to do, given the male dominance of the travel genre) and now very much want to seek out the writing of some of the ones I hadn't previously encountered, in particualar Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes and Somerville and Ross.
(Because I had an e-ARC for review, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, I can't comment on the maps and illustrations, though a quick glance at the hardback in the gorgeous Highland Bookshop in Fort William suggests that it is also a beautifully presented book.)
September 10, 2019
“Footnotes” brings together two things I love in a book—nature and travel writing and literary biography and criticism. Author Peter Fiennes comes up with the quirky idea of traveling around Britain following the paths various writers took over the years spanning Gerald de Barry’s’ journey through Wales on a Crusade recruiting trip in 1188 to Beryl Bainbridge’s 1980s recreation of J.B. Priestley’s trip around the north of England in the 1930s. Fiennes visits the southern coast on the trail of Enid Blyton; hikes through Cornwall with Wilkie Collins and Ithell Colquhoun; meets up with Wilkie again when he recreates Collins’ tour through the Lake District with Charles Dickens; trails Samuel Johnson and James Boswell through the Scottish Highlands; treads the paths taken by pioneering women travelers Celia Fiennes, Edith Somerville and Violet “Martin” Ross; and takes one final journey along the path that Dickens’ funeral train traveled from his home in Kent to his final resting place in Westminster Abbey. Along the way, Fiennes is a breezily pleasant guide—he has a wry sense of humor but is also capable of probing social commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed the time in his company.
Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.
November 8, 2019
This book is a simple idea very well executed. The author visits various parts of Britain which held some meaning to a writer, philosopher or poet. He talks about the places, the writers and their works. So there it is. And yet this book is so much more than that. There is humour, there is pathos. He is honest about the subjects (places and people) and it isn’t all gorgeous and glory. He touches on the difficulties of some writers and their works and he writes in great depth about a diverse group of people. We have Wilkie Collins, JB Priestley, Charles Dickens and others.
When Mr Fiennes talks about Enid Blyton, for instance, and her trips to Swanage and Corfe Castle, he also talks about whether she was a bad mother, whether she was racist, what makes her stories so fascinating for children, etc. He wears his learning lightly and the whole book is fun and a fast read. But it isn’t simple, there is complexity and there is respect.
Recommended for the literary ramblers in your life who are difficult to buy gifts for.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
When Mr Fiennes talks about Enid Blyton, for instance, and her trips to Swanage and Corfe Castle, he also talks about whether she was a bad mother, whether she was racist, what makes her stories so fascinating for children, etc. He wears his learning lightly and the whole book is fun and a fast read. But it isn’t simple, there is complexity and there is respect.
Recommended for the literary ramblers in your life who are difficult to buy gifts for.
I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
January 6, 2021
4.5 stars which I have chosen to round up. Tom Holland I’d quoted on the cover this:- “Beautifully written, moving in its reflections, and often very funny”. That perfectly sums up my reaction to this book. Fiennes brings his motley crew of writers to life for us, especially, to my mind, End Blyton, Wilkie Collins, J.B.Priestley and Dr Johnson. I knew more about some than others and that applies equally to the places they and the author visited. The book achieved the joint goals of educating and entertaining. I can think of ,a few of my friends who will enjoy this.
July 20, 2020
Sometimes I thought Fiennes took a negative view of things, but I overall enjoyed this book and his research into the landscapes traveled by this handful of great British writers, some of whom I'd never heard of before. I was especially interested in the women who traveled over the United Kingdom writing during time periods where that was a very unorthodox thing to do.
December 4, 2019
As a short review:
Both funny and poignant with the pace of numerous train journeys Peter Fiennes takes us on a tour of Britain with some of Britain's best known (and not so best known) authors. A great read!
I'll be writing a full review in Issue 4 of The Pilgrim magazine, out in December 2019.
Both funny and poignant with the pace of numerous train journeys Peter Fiennes takes us on a tour of Britain with some of Britain's best known (and not so best known) authors. A great read!
I'll be writing a full review in Issue 4 of The Pilgrim magazine, out in December 2019.
December 9, 2019
A most unusual book that I enjoyed even more than anticipated. The author travels on foot about Great Britain following the former travels of a rogues gallery of bygone authors of various centuries. I listened to it. It was read is a rather rushed, breathless way that suited the tale perfectly. Near the ending is a wonderful imagined dinner party with 12 authors sitting together arguing, pontificating, commiserating - it is brilliant and hilarious.
October 25, 2019
One man’s personal journey in the footsteps of twelve writers.
I opened Footnotes with some trepidation as I feared I might be about to read a worthy, but rather dry and self-conscious tome that I felt I ‘ought’ to enjoy. Not a bit of it; I was completely wrong. Peter Fiennes has a lively and witty style that made me smile often and brought me both fun and entertainment as well as considerable detail and new information. I loved the quality of the prose. The variety of sentence length seemed perfectly attuned to the effect Peter Fiennes was creating at any given time and the beauty of descriptions is matched by a humour and level of observation I thoroughly enjoyed.
It may have helped that Footnotes opens begins with Enid Blyton, whom I grew up with and whose The Ship of Adventure was the first book I read completely independently as a child in the 1960s, but I found Peter Fiennes not only transported me to my personal past, he gave me superb descriptions of the British landscape through his frequently poetic style. His depiction of what Gerald of Wales might find in modern day Cardiff, for example, is a veritable cornucopia for the senses with everything from music to vaping illustrated perfectly. In Footnotes the reader can find social history, geography, poetry, prose and considerable drama in the lives of the authors explored.
Although I treally enjoyed finding out more about the authors featured, even more I liked discovering Peter Fiennes through his own writing. There’s a real sense of a man who cares about his environment, our history and those who have, or will, pass through it. I appreciated his humour and his ability to make quite bold statements about life with sometimes quite informal language, so that reading Footnotes gave me much to ponder after I’d finished reading it.
Footnotes is a smashing read because it encompasses so many genres in one book. Part travelogue, part history, part memoir, part guidebook, part literary catalogue, it’s accessible, entertaining and erudite. Footnotes would make a super gift for any book lover.
I opened Footnotes with some trepidation as I feared I might be about to read a worthy, but rather dry and self-conscious tome that I felt I ‘ought’ to enjoy. Not a bit of it; I was completely wrong. Peter Fiennes has a lively and witty style that made me smile often and brought me both fun and entertainment as well as considerable detail and new information. I loved the quality of the prose. The variety of sentence length seemed perfectly attuned to the effect Peter Fiennes was creating at any given time and the beauty of descriptions is matched by a humour and level of observation I thoroughly enjoyed.
It may have helped that Footnotes opens begins with Enid Blyton, whom I grew up with and whose The Ship of Adventure was the first book I read completely independently as a child in the 1960s, but I found Peter Fiennes not only transported me to my personal past, he gave me superb descriptions of the British landscape through his frequently poetic style. His depiction of what Gerald of Wales might find in modern day Cardiff, for example, is a veritable cornucopia for the senses with everything from music to vaping illustrated perfectly. In Footnotes the reader can find social history, geography, poetry, prose and considerable drama in the lives of the authors explored.
Although I treally enjoyed finding out more about the authors featured, even more I liked discovering Peter Fiennes through his own writing. There’s a real sense of a man who cares about his environment, our history and those who have, or will, pass through it. I appreciated his humour and his ability to make quite bold statements about life with sometimes quite informal language, so that reading Footnotes gave me much to ponder after I’d finished reading it.
Footnotes is a smashing read because it encompasses so many genres in one book. Part travelogue, part history, part memoir, part guidebook, part literary catalogue, it’s accessible, entertaining and erudite. Footnotes would make a super gift for any book lover.
June 30, 2019
Peter Fiennes’s writing pops with keen observation as he journeys from Swanage to Skye and down again in the literary footsteps of a dozen British writers comparing the landscapes and attitudes they describe against today’s Britain.
Footnotes fuses literary biography with travel and nature-writing. From the rocky coves of Enid Blyton’s Dorset, Fiennes boards the train west with Wilkie Collins, contemplates the deep magic resonant in landscapes with Ithell Colquhoun, and clip-clops towards Wales alongside adventuress Celia Fiennes. Gerald of Wales guides him to Cardiff, and Edith Somerville mounts Snowdon.
He tracks J.B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge north and boards the Doncaster train with Dickens. Samuel Johnson takes Fiennes to the Scottish Highlands where a wistful note of longing for a field of one’s own brings us back to Enid Blyton and that image of woodland rambles with a sandwich on a stile.
“Would you go back?” Fiennes asks. “If you could?” Back to those misty meadow mornings, the oak and ash and thorn, something snuffling in the undergrowth: red squirrel, pine marten, wolf. Eagles overhead, fish in the river, apples from the tree. Was life better then? Happier then? Can we even evaluate this? Each successive generation has a changed idea of normal: today we don’t miss fields of butterflies because we never had them.
Though Fiennes’s writing snaps like Christmas crackers, he maintains an endearing humility throughout the journey and allows his ghostly companions to amuse, intrigue, and inform us. But he teases them often, in ever such a nice way.
Footnotes fuses literary biography with travel and nature-writing. From the rocky coves of Enid Blyton’s Dorset, Fiennes boards the train west with Wilkie Collins, contemplates the deep magic resonant in landscapes with Ithell Colquhoun, and clip-clops towards Wales alongside adventuress Celia Fiennes. Gerald of Wales guides him to Cardiff, and Edith Somerville mounts Snowdon.
He tracks J.B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge north and boards the Doncaster train with Dickens. Samuel Johnson takes Fiennes to the Scottish Highlands where a wistful note of longing for a field of one’s own brings us back to Enid Blyton and that image of woodland rambles with a sandwich on a stile.
“Would you go back?” Fiennes asks. “If you could?” Back to those misty meadow mornings, the oak and ash and thorn, something snuffling in the undergrowth: red squirrel, pine marten, wolf. Eagles overhead, fish in the river, apples from the tree. Was life better then? Happier then? Can we even evaluate this? Each successive generation has a changed idea of normal: today we don’t miss fields of butterflies because we never had them.
Though Fiennes’s writing snaps like Christmas crackers, he maintains an endearing humility throughout the journey and allows his ghostly companions to amuse, intrigue, and inform us. But he teases them often, in ever such a nice way.
June 29, 2019
Hmmm – not what I had expected. I thought I'd find a book that surveyed Britain with the benefit of trails blazed by authors that had gone before. We'd find the nature of the places that were so important and formative to the authors that we'd forever find the two indelibly linked. But a hundred pages into this and we'd hardly travelled. The first chunk (I feel bound to use that word, rather than chapter, for it tells you a lot more) is about Enid Blyton, and dithers with travel reportage from the places she thought of as a second home, holidaying there successfully at least once annually for many years. But it also tells me more about Blyton than I thought necessary. Part two is more mobile, as our author shows us what you see today if you follow a travel book a young Wilkie Collins wrote, of life in the south-west beyond the reach of the railway network, but that marginalia is hardly representative, is it?
Alright, we do move, but I felt for too much my knowledge and interest had not progressed, either with the travelogue or about the people concerned. To get to Hereford we pop in on the travel journals of a long-distant relative, then have White Man's Guilt about sharing her name, then yack on about slavery in the most off-topic way. Diversions are ever present. It's only when forced to be more considerate – of the writing and the places – that we get a more readable chunk, viz the route of Priestley that Beryl Bainbridge had also followed a generation or two back. That makes for good journalism, which is fine, but again not what I came here for. I suppose I should, however, applaud the author for the chutzpah in starting the bibliography with the words "This could go on a while, except I won't let it." Would that he had taken that approach with the book itself. One and a half stars.
Alright, we do move, but I felt for too much my knowledge and interest had not progressed, either with the travelogue or about the people concerned. To get to Hereford we pop in on the travel journals of a long-distant relative, then have White Man's Guilt about sharing her name, then yack on about slavery in the most off-topic way. Diversions are ever present. It's only when forced to be more considerate – of the writing and the places – that we get a more readable chunk, viz the route of Priestley that Beryl Bainbridge had also followed a generation or two back. That makes for good journalism, which is fine, but again not what I came here for. I suppose I should, however, applaud the author for the chutzpah in starting the bibliography with the words "This could go on a while, except I won't let it." Would that he had taken that approach with the book itself. One and a half stars.
September 15, 2019
In Footnotes, Peter Fiennes takes a tour of Britain, looking at it through the eyes of various authors and the times in which they lived. He considers how the country and its people have changed.
Footnotes is an absorbing read for a quiet afternoon. Fiennes is very good at conjuring up the atmosphere of place in any era. There are some excellent contemplations of Britain then and now through both historic authors’ eyes and documented experiences, as well as Fiennes observations. These take the form of both serious considerations, but also very witty commentary, with the author switching from one to the other with admirable fluidity. So be warned, Footnotes, is not the type of book to read in a genteel tea room lest a spray of cake crumbs erupts from failed attempts to stifle a guffaw as Fiennes’s wit takes hold.
Fiennes endeared himself to me, because he was just an ordinary guy launching himself into the great outdoors with little more than a block of mint cake and a limited ability to read a map, and not an epic adventurer who made me feel like a couch potato. Even back in civilisation he succumbs to the weakness of the flesh as, feeling a little worse for wear from the alcoholic bout of the night before, Fiennes feels compelled to grapple with the large quantity of chocolate related products thrust in his direction in the Cadbury’s factory tour.
His observations on the authors came over as balanced. Enid Blyton being a particular case in point (her reputation recently having been given a really good pummelling), as Fiennes explained her more redeeming features.
Footnotes was an enjoyable sojourn around Britain from the comfort of my armchair and one that I will quite happily undertake again when I feel the melancholy of the winter nights closing in.
Footnotes was courtesy of Oneworld publications.
Footnotes is an absorbing read for a quiet afternoon. Fiennes is very good at conjuring up the atmosphere of place in any era. There are some excellent contemplations of Britain then and now through both historic authors’ eyes and documented experiences, as well as Fiennes observations. These take the form of both serious considerations, but also very witty commentary, with the author switching from one to the other with admirable fluidity. So be warned, Footnotes, is not the type of book to read in a genteel tea room lest a spray of cake crumbs erupts from failed attempts to stifle a guffaw as Fiennes’s wit takes hold.
Fiennes endeared himself to me, because he was just an ordinary guy launching himself into the great outdoors with little more than a block of mint cake and a limited ability to read a map, and not an epic adventurer who made me feel like a couch potato. Even back in civilisation he succumbs to the weakness of the flesh as, feeling a little worse for wear from the alcoholic bout of the night before, Fiennes feels compelled to grapple with the large quantity of chocolate related products thrust in his direction in the Cadbury’s factory tour.
His observations on the authors came over as balanced. Enid Blyton being a particular case in point (her reputation recently having been given a really good pummelling), as Fiennes explained her more redeeming features.
Footnotes was an enjoyable sojourn around Britain from the comfort of my armchair and one that I will quite happily undertake again when I feel the melancholy of the winter nights closing in.
Footnotes was courtesy of Oneworld publications.
July 6, 2019
I have very mixed feelings about this book. Once, it might have been described as "delightfully bitchy" or some such, but nowadays the kind of sniping the author Peter Fiennes engages in just seems petty; and it's inconsistent and silly, too. He repeatedly notes that one of his sources for the book, Celia Fiennes, was a bad speller; but she was born into a time when spelling, although becoming regularized, was still not standard, and certainly not so across all of England. He enjoys taking the wind out of people's sails on the smallest of matters--the cost of a haircut in Wales vs. in the London suburbs, for example. But at the same time the writing is often beautiful and about places where the atmosphere and sense of history is difficult to convey to readers. He communicates what I think is a common reaction to pollution and the end of species and great forests: a mixture of rage, urgent desire to fix things, and the sense that doing so won't make a difference. He's selected interesting writers with whom to interact and follow, but all of them are white and financially comfortable. It's a very English book--I dare anyone who has ever lived in England to read it and not hear the author's accent as they do--in that Fiennes seems uncomfortable with delving into the more complicated or emotional contexts of the writers' lives and travels, instead smoothing over much of it with sarcasm and unfunny snarkiness.
September 17, 2020
Thank you to Oneworld Publications, the author and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book. It's hard to explain what it is - although I think it was described as a "Nature Book" it's so much more than that. The author takes the reader on a journey all around Britain, which he himself completes, following some of Britain's authors on journeys they made in the past. Some of the authors are household names, whose work I was familiar with - Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Enid Blyton, Edith Somerville and Samuel Johnson. Others I hadn't much experience with - Violet "Martin" Ross, Beryl Bainbridge, James Boswell, Celia Fiennes, J.B Priestley and Gerald of Wales. The book reads like a conversation, as if we are in the pub or on the road or in the woodlands with the author. He writes with humour, sensitivity and, of course, a social conscience which is penetrating without being preachy. I love how we got to know the authors, warts and all. I will never think of Enid Blyton, Wilkie Collins or Charles Dickens in quite the same way - although I won't love their work any less! Reading this book has opened up a whole new world for me in both the literal world and the literary one. I'm off to read 'Oak and Ash and Thorn' by the same writer right now, after I make a quick donation to Trees for Life (Scotland).
September 1, 2019
I like travel and I love learning about authors so a book combining those two things sounded right up my street.
And Footnotes gets off to a cracking start with tales of Enid Blyton and her connection to Dorset.
While Enid’s work is controversial, her books were very much part of my childhood and I wanted to learn more about the woman behind the literary empire. Where better to do so than the place she went on holiday?
Written in a style that made me feel like I was travelling with a knowledgeable and humorous friend, first stop on Peter Fiennes’ trip around the country is the Isle of Purbeck, as I believe it’s known locally.
A mixture of anecdote, biography, travel, history and even nature writing, the book makes for a lively and engaging read.
Other authors featured include Wilkie Collins, JB Priestley, Beryl Bainbridge and Charles Dickens who are all given the same treatment as Enid.
It wasn’t quite what I was expecting and the authors were not all ones I would have chosen but I felt he had a good mix.
It definitely sparked some wanderlust and the idea of combining that with visiting places important to some of my favourite authors has taken off in my head.
And Footnotes gets off to a cracking start with tales of Enid Blyton and her connection to Dorset.
While Enid’s work is controversial, her books were very much part of my childhood and I wanted to learn more about the woman behind the literary empire. Where better to do so than the place she went on holiday?
Written in a style that made me feel like I was travelling with a knowledgeable and humorous friend, first stop on Peter Fiennes’ trip around the country is the Isle of Purbeck, as I believe it’s known locally.
A mixture of anecdote, biography, travel, history and even nature writing, the book makes for a lively and engaging read.
Other authors featured include Wilkie Collins, JB Priestley, Beryl Bainbridge and Charles Dickens who are all given the same treatment as Enid.
It wasn’t quite what I was expecting and the authors were not all ones I would have chosen but I felt he had a good mix.
It definitely sparked some wanderlust and the idea of combining that with visiting places important to some of my favourite authors has taken off in my head.
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