BETWEEN THE CHALK AND THE SEA (PB)

Over four seasons, travel writer Gail Simmons walks from Southampton to Canterbury along a lost pilgrimage route, past prehistoric earthworks, abandoned monasteries, Saxon churches, ruined castles and historic seaports. In the age of the car, what does it mean to embrace 'slow travel'? Why does being a woman walking alone still feel like a radical act? And in an age when walking connects the nation, can we now reclaim pilgrimage as a secular act? This account of her 240-mile journey blends history, anthropology, etymology and geology.