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octavia_cade 's review for:

Walking Home: A Poet's Journey by Simon Armitage
3.0
adventurous medium-paced

There's an appealing idea here - Armitage walks the Pennine Way, and everything on the journey is financed by the poetry readings he gives each night. I don't know whether I'm more jealous that poetry is making him money, or that he gets to walk the Pennine Way (one of my bucket list items) but there's definitely a mild sense of jealousy going on here, except for the parts where he's stumbling about lost in awful weather, because I've been on equally unpleasant walks and it's no fun. Those are the why-am-I-doing-this-stupid-thing? walks, when all you can think about is that you could be warm and dry at home, but at least when I've been stuck on one of those walks I've never had to give a poetry reading at the end of it. No, I've collapsed into the nearest pub and started hoovering down beer and hot chips, which is the best way for any walk to end as far as I'm concerned. All credit to him for trying it this way instead... and largely succeeding!