Lost in the Lakes: Notes from a 379-Mile Walk in the Lake District

Description

Join travel writer Tom Chesshyre for a Lakeland adventure like no other. Explore towering mountains, wide-open valleys and magnificent lakes - stopping off at a cosy inn or two along the way - on a 379-mile hike around the Lake District From Penrith and back, via Ullswater, Keswick, Cockermouth, Coniston, Grasmere and Windermere, plus many places in between, Tom Chesshyre puts on his walking boots and sets forth along the trails in a big "wobbly circle", drawn onwards by the dramatic scenery that attracts more than 19 million visitors each year. Across landscape that so inspired the Romantic poets, he takes in remote parts of the parkland that many tourists miss - enjoying encounters aplenty with farmers, fell runners and fellow hikers, while staying in shepherds' huts, bothies and old climbers' hotels along the way, and even going for a (chilly) dip in Derwentwater. This is the Lake District seen from its walking paths - with just a backpack, an open mind... and a spring in the step.

Tom Chesshyre is the author of ten travel books. He has travelled 40,000 miles around the world for his train books; most recently for Slow Trains Around Spain: A 3,000-Mile Adventure on 52 Rides. His book writing has also taken him across North Africa after the Arab Spring, round the dark side of the Maldives on cargo ships and on a journey through unsung Britain (in To Hull and Back). He worked on travel desk of The Times for 21 years and is now freelance. His train column Tickets, Please appears in The Critic magazine. He lives in London.

Tom Chesshyre sets off to make a meandering circle of the Lake District on foot with one aim in mind: 'to let happenchance lead the way.' In his amiable and relaxed company we climb the fells and skirt the lakes; just as engagingly, we meet a carnival of characters whose personalities and opinions are the real focus of Chesshyre's tale. Together they sum up a region whose problems are many, but whose enchantments are still unmatched for walkers in these islands. * Christopher Somerville, The Times * A charming book, brimming with tender affection for this 'magnificent... dreamy patchwork' of peaks, tarns and 'serpentine valleys... between soaring slopes'. Tom Chesshyre is no brash Wainwright-bagger, but instead a relaxed, affable guide who takes us on a 'big wobbly circle' of a stroll around all sixteen main lakes: an impressive 379 miles in all. Neither travel guide nor gushing panegyric, Lost in the Lakes is a book for the everyday ambler: gentle, slow-paced and sweetly uplifting at every turn. * Rebecca Lowe, journalist and author of The Slow Road to Tehran * Lyrical, witty and full of cheer, Lost in the Lakes avoids tales of heroic climbs in favour of the quieter - and oft-overlooked - story of everyday life in one of Britain's rural honey-pots. From barmaids to town mayors, Chesshyre lends an inquiring ear to everyone who crosses his path, resulting in a delightful portrait of a community that is proud of its past but unsure of its future. Part travelogue, part social commentary, this gem of a book succeeds in being both politically engaged and uproariously entertaining - a rare feat in travel writing and a welcome new direction for the genre. * Oliver Balch, journalist and writer *