Finally, the question a lot of people have asked me since I came home: would I walk the Pennine Way again? My answer: no. Well, maybe, but if I did, I’d rely more on my feet next time and less on my tongue; take fewer poems with me, and hopefully bring a few more back. And I’d take someone brave and intrepid with me, someone not daunted by mist or intimidated by dark clouds, to guide me across the Cheviots, to hold my hand over Cross Fell, and to part the black curtain which hangs over Kinder Scout and lead me through.
Cotton Grass
Hand-maidens, humble courtiers,
yes-men in silver wigs,
they stoop low at the path’s edge, bow
to the military parade
of boot and stick.
Then it’s back to the work,
to the acid acres.
To wade barefoot through waterlogged peat,
trawling the breeze, carding the air
for threads of sheep-wool snagged on the breeze.
Letting time blaze through their ageless hair
like the wind.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Thanks first and foremost are due to friend and fellow poet Caroline Hawkridge. At a very early stage in the project I realised I didn’t have anything like the organisational skills to make this walk happen, and without either laughing or fainting, she responded to my plea for help with such enthusiasm, optimism and managerial panache that I now shudder to think how things might have turned out without her assistance. In the planning stages she fielded enquiries, nobbled unsuspecting locals, tracked down possible contacts and moulded offers of help into a workable itinerary. During the actual walk she operated a kind of hotline-switchboard from a field position somewhere in Cheshire, and developed such a rapport with so many individuals along the Pennine Way I think they were slightly disappointed when I turned up rather than her. And all this at a time in her life when she had better things to do, so my gratitude is total.
In rough chronological order I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the following, for their kindness and encouragement, for their time and energy, but mostly for their company, which saw me from beginning to end and transformed the Pennine Way from a walk into a journey: Al Pattullo and his wife Judith; Bridget Khursheed; Jacquie Wright, Executive Manager, Abbotsford Trust; Beverley Rutherford, Events and Campaign Co-ordinator, Abbotsford Trust; the Borders Writers’ Forum; Catherine Ross and John Wylie; poet Katrina Porteous; Steve Westwood, National Trail Officer, Natural England; Mel Whewell, member of Northumberland National Park Authority; Jonathan Manning, Editor of Country Walking; Tim Dee and Claire Spottiswoode; inevitable Huddersfielder Nick Batty; Frances Whitehead, Communications Officer, Northumberland National Park and the Park Rangers; Gareth and Jane Latcham at the Rose and Thistle Inn; Sarah Moor; Joyce and Colin Taylor at Forest View Walkers’ Accommodation; poet Matt Bryden, Camilla and ‘deer-hunter’ Jess; William Morrison-Bell of Highgreen Arts and friends and family and dogs; the Bellingham Heritage Centre committee, particularly Seán MacNialluis; Dick Shevlin and family; musicians Jessica and Martha Carr, Don Clegg, Gwennie Fraser, Stephen Fry and David McCracken; Mick Blood, Manager, Once Brewed Youth Hostel; Des Garrahan; Alison Blair, Manager, Northumberland National Park Visitor Centre at Once Brewed; Wendy Bond; Sue and Dave at the Greenhead Hotel; Jane Brantom at the Hadrian Arts Trust; Danny Johnson; poet Josephine Dickinson; Mary and David Livesey at Yew Tree Chapel B&B; David Godwin; Janette Thorley and Mike and their golden retriever; Jules Cadie; Garrigill Village Hall and the Save the George and Dragon committee; Richard Brown and his dog and his friends; fell-runners Claire ‘Freckle’ Appleton, Hester Cox, Alastair Dunn and Andrew Calcott plus dogs plus Neil Wootton and the Fell Poets’ Society; poet and Scaremonger Martin Malone; Annie Kindleysides and Brian at Meaburn Hill Farmhouse B&B; Rick Abell; fair-weather Brian; Chris Woodley-Stewart, Director, North Pennines AONB Partnership; Shane Harris, Sustainable Tourism and Communications Officer, North Pennines AONB Partnership, and his wife Cath; Sue Matthews at Langdon Beck Hotel; J. E. & V. Winter’s of Middleton-in-Teesdale; Jan Arger, General Manager, Blackton Grange; Peter Murray and Jane Hilton; alleged journalist Paul Croughton; Ben and Delphine Ruston; Vaughn Curtis, Chief Executive, the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, plus colleagues Emma Vallance and Angelique; Graham Oakes; Colin Chick, Pennine Way Ranger for the Yorkshire Dales National Park; Ann Pilling and Joe and friends; Veronica Caperon; Andrew Forster at the Wordsworth Trust; Andrew ‘Slug’ Slegg; Adrian Pickles, Director, Malham Tarn Field Centre and his wife Jacqueline and dog Maggie; Kirsten and Chris and friends; Carey Davies, Assistant Editor of The Great Outdoors and Jim Morrison lookalike; Professor Glyn Turton and family; Gargrave Civic Society; Rob Hawley; Charles, kind supplier of eco-wear; Anna Turner at the Elmet Trust with her husband barefoot Johnny and Bet the dog; Rachel Connor and Rebecca Evans at the Arvon Foundation, Lumb Bank; the Ted Hughes Theatre at Calder High School; Ruth and Donald Crossley; Jeni Wetton; Jo Abell; the Armitage tribe; Subhadassi; Benjamin Judge, Rod Lyon and his son Jack and the Blackstone Edge Butty Ambushers (sorry I missed you!); Alison Mills at the National Trust’s Marsden Moor Estate and James Dean at Standedge Visitor Centre (British Waterways); Martyn Sharp, Pennine Way Ranger, Peak District National Park; Lisa and Sean Caldwell; Michael Constantine; Bay Tree Books and the Oakwood pub in Glossop; Chris Strogen; Stephanie Hinde, National Trust High Peak and Longshaw; and those countless others for their behind-the-scenes help or those whose generous offers and invitations fell beyond my schedule. And most of all to Sue, who I walked home to.
More Praise for
Walking Home
“Droll, familiar, melancholy. . . . There are certainly times, such as when [Armitage is] lost on the moors in the rain and fog, that you’re glad it’s him rather than you, but there are plenty of others when you simply want to leap out of your chair, follow in his footsteps and start walking.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Although Armitage is a poet, he does not dally long on the twisting of a leaf upon a dying branch or other poetical distractions; this is an adventure story, compellingly and humorously told, British upper lip remaining stiff in the face of hardship, defeat, and the occasional triumph.”
—Daily Beast
“Lovely. . . . Armitage’s account is so observant, so funny and so intensely likeable you leave it wishing he picked a longer route. The dialogue is note-perfect and the jokes alone are worth the journey. And at the end of it all, Armitage has achieved far more than his stated ambition. Walking Home tells us not just about the bones of Britain, but about the connections still to be forged between people and print, and the everlasting power of an open heart.”
—Bella Bathurst, Telegraph
“Entertaining. . . . Walking Home riffs on the ancient cor-relation between itinerancy and story-telling, with embedded tales of varying tallness coming and going in an almost casual manner.”
—Adam Thorpe, Guardian
“Walking Home fits into the classic unnecessary journey genre, with a cast of local characters and transcendent moments. . . . Never will reading about a hot shower and some foot ointment be quite so enjoyable.”
—Independent
“If Sir Patrick was the Tigger of walking literature, and Hazlitt its Fotherington-Thomas, the poet Simon Armitage is definitely its Eeyore. . . . His memoir is both very funny and the best excuse for not walking the Pennine Way I’ve ever read.”
—Jane Shilling, Telegraph
“Simon Armitage’s Walking Home, an account in prose of how he took on the Pennine Way, held my interest to the end, partly because I was so pleased it wasn’t me stumbling up, down and over the terrible terrain, assailed by stinging rain and blinding fog, and having to read poems to those who cared to come and listen in the evening—and also because Armitage makes a really good read out of his comfortless adventure.”
—Claire Tomalin, Guardian
“An ingenious idea for a journey and a brilliant idea for a b
ook, which includes some of his poems. In this entertaining jaunt through rural Britain and unpredictable weather, part travel guide and part memoir, Armitage describes his adventures, from collie dogs growling at his heels and ‘mean-looking cows’ to the unbridled generosity of strangers. A travel gem.”
—Booklist, starred review
“The appeal of a book like Walking Home turns largely on the likeability of its narrator, and Armitage scores high on that scale. Perhaps best of all, he concludes his journey in a way that’s as surprising for its candor as it is completely satisfying.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Award-winning poet Armitage does what poets sometimes do: takes a walk, observes keenly and reports. . . . A journey that pays dividends, both for poet-wanderer Armitage and for readers.”
—Kirkus Reviews
by the same author
poetry
ZOOM!
XANADU
KID
BOOK OF MATCHES
THE DEAD SEA POEMS
MOON COUNTRY (with Glyn Maxwell)
CLOUDCUCKOOLAND
KILLING TIME
SELECTED POEMS
TRAVELLING SONGS
THE UNIVERSAL HOME DOCTOR
HOMER’S ODYSSEY
TYRANNOSAURUS REX VERSUS THE CORDUROY KID
SEEING STARS
drama
ECLIPSE
MISTER HERACLES (after Euripides)
JERUSALEM
prose
ALL POINTS NORTH
LITTLE GREEN MAN
THE WHITE STUFF
GIG: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A ROCK-STAR FANTASIST
translation
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR
Copyright
Copyright © 2013, 2012 by Simon Armitage
Map copyright © 2012 by Eleanor Crow
First American Edition 2013
First published in Great Britain under the title
Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way
All rights reserved
First published as a Liveright paperback 2014
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, Liveright Publishing Corporation,
a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830
Production manager: Julia Druskin
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Armitage, Simon, 1963–
Walking home : a poet’s journey / Simon Armitage. — First American edition.
pages cm
“First published in Great Britain under the title Walking home : travels with a troubadour on the Pennine Way”—Title page verso.
ISBN 978-0-87140-416-9 (hardcover)
1. Armitage, Simon, 1963– — Travel—England—Pennine Way. 2. Pennine Way (England)—Description and travel. 3. Walking—England—Pennine Way. 4. Poets, English—20th century—Biography. 5. Poetry—Social aspects—England—Pennine Way. I. Title.
DA670.P4A76 2013
942.8'1—dc23
2012041798
ISBN 978-0-87140-345-2 (e-book)
ISBN 978-0-87140-743-6 (pbk.)
Liveright Publishing Corporation
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W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
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Walking Home: A Poet's Journey Page 23
