Where My Feet Fall Ed. Duncan Minshull

4 out of 5 stars

A copy of this was provided free of charge from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Modern transport is amazing. I can climb in my car, drive to an airport, and board a plane that can take me halfway around the world. But there is very little pleasure in travelling this way, it is clinical and impersonal, you don’t connect with the places and people that you are passing by and you barely have time to think.

Ironically the original way that we had of travelling, walking, is still the best way of forging those connections with people and the inner recesses of my mind. Others find similar comfort in taking a walk, and in this book, Duncan Minshull has collected together 20 essays from a variety of different authors who each bring a perspective on the act of placing one foot in front of the other.

In his essay, Richard Ford contemplates the decision process he goes through when choosing to go for a walk for the sake of it rather than for a specific purpose. Ingrid Persaud writes about the act of pilgrimage on a walk to Santiago when she has not undertaken any training. She suffers, but in the end knows why she did it as she places her hands on the walls of the cathedral at the end.

Walking a route that Sally Bayley used to do many years ago as a child brings back countless memories both happy and sad. Taking a dog for a walk is something that many people do each day, and for Irenosen Okojie, this is a daily ritual. In her essay, her dog, Gogo slips the lead and vanishes in the distance causing her to panic.

I liked almost every essay in this book, apart from one, which while it was well written, didn’t really fit the brief in my eyes. The variety of authors and the specific subjects they write about just goes to show that each and every walk can present a moment to discover something new about the world around us. I’d recommend this, especially if you read a little then take a walk to think about it.

Favourite Essays:
Grain … Again – Will Self
Following Others – Tim Parks
Around Deer’s Slope – Pico Iyer
A Record (Rain) – Jessica J. Lee

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2 Comments

  1. Liz Dexter

    Looks interesting. Was there much diversity in the authors? Ooh, I see you’re reading The Travel Writing Tribe, I’ll be interested to see what you make of that!

    • Paul

      Not so much sadly, only Jessica J. Lee. It would be good to see more in these collections.

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