Voices on the Path

Walking may seem a simple act. But it has a long history, much of it unnoticed. It has always carried a wide range of associations, in a myriad of areas, including manual work, philosophy, social class, landscape, political protest, cartography, poetry, religion, tourism and art. Wales is especially rich in traditions of walking – walking by its own people and by visitors.

Voices on the Path takes a meandering route through this history, beginning with the footprints of Mesolithic people in the intertidal mud of the Severn estuary and ending with strollers on Swansea’s promenade today. Along the way, the reader is invited to rest and spend time with some of the most interesting walkers, including Gerald of Wales, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Francis Kilvert, George Borrow, Anne Lister, Ursula Martin, Hanna Engelkamp and Delyth Jenkins. Their individual voices enliven the narrative. The reader will also meet a host of other remarkable walkers, many of them little known, and, through the eyes of walkers, will learn much about how Welsh people lived, and how Wales was seen by people from outside.