The Green Road Into The Trees

WINNER OF THE 2014 THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 
 
Award-winning British travel writer Hugh Thomson explores the most exotic and foreign country of them all - his own.

He is an illuminating companion…frequently comic, his voice is original and engaging; proof that it is the walker, not the path, that counts.

An immensely enjoyable book: curious, articulate, intellectually playful and savagely candid.

He records more than impressions: there are fascinating excursions into neglected areas of British history, and conversations with hippies, travellers and farmers, which makes Mr Thomson’s journey a joy to follow.

Often funny and always enlightening

Thomson undertakes a 400-mile journey coast-to-coast along drover paths, bramble-filled ditches and half-forgotten tracks, discovering remnants of forgotten cultures in this celebration of old England and its heritage.

Thomson provides a solid sense of place and the reader gets to know the route and its distinctive features.

This sparky account of a walk from Dorset to Norfolk had this reader nodding about the "strikingly neurotic behaviour… that often lies beneath the English skin" in the characters of Wind in the Willows, applauding the recognition that "Empire didn't suit us. It brought out the bossy, inflexible, hierarchical side" and whooping at Thomson's use of tie and clipboard to enter the officially imposed sanctum sanctorum of Stonehenge.

Gently told, with rich humour and an enjoyable sense of inquiry.

Hugh Thomson is the author of five previous travel books, the most recent of which, Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico, was serialised by BBC Radio 4. He has led many research expeditions to Peru and is a leading explorer of Inca settlements. He has also taken filming expeditions to Mount Kilimanjaro, Bhutan, Afghanistan and the Mexican Sierra Madre. His most recent book, The Green Road into the Trees, won the Thwaites Wainwright Prize for UK Nature and Travel Writing. 
 
'Everywhere Thomson goes, he finds good tales to tell...' New York Times Book Review 
 
www.thewhiterock.co.uk

WINNER OF THE 2014 THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 
 
In the past, Hugh Thomson has written acclaimed books about Peru, Mexico and the Indian Himalaya. Now he returns to the most exotic and foreign country of them all – his own. 
 
Walking right across England, along ancient trackways and green grass roads, Hugh explores the way the country was and the way it is today: the legends, literature and natural world that define us, and the undercurrent of regret running throughout our history; what he calls ‘the unicorn disappearing into the trees’. 
 
From coast-to-coast and through the heart of the countryside, he shows how older,forgotten cultures like the Celts, Saxons and Vikings lie much closer to the surface than we may think. It is a journey enriched and partly told by the characters he meets along the way. By taking it, Hugh casts unexpected light – and humour – on the way we live now.

Hugh Thomson

One Man and Mule is a lovely, good-natured and highly informative journey through the hinterland, emphasizing the human scale of England in all its peculiarities - evocative and wonderfully observed.

[I]t marks rivers, county boundaries, towns and villages relevant to the story, and the route the author took from St Bees on the Irish Sea, the most westerly point of northern England, to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea. The remote, random, meandering nature of this hugely enjoyable peregrination could not have been better expressed… there is evocative writing of nature and landscape beyond the entertainment.

A thoroughly readable and discursive ramble through visually stimulating and historically fascinating countryside… A perfect book to take on your next holiday

Thomson’s gently blokeish bonhomie is never less than diverting and his gently meandering account the ideal easy-going beach read

Like all travel books, it is a potpourri of journey log, historical notebook, social observation and agricultural and rural comment. Thomson writes wittily, his deep understanding of landscape and nature coupled with a powerful descriptive capacity and good ear for dialogue.

A wonderful witty and personal journey, this paints a vivid and beautiful picture of Britain and its history

Companionable account of a coast-to-coast walk across England

Across England with a Pack Mule

In the Middle Ages, mules were used to transport goods across Britain. Strong, sturdy and able to carry a good 160lbs of weight, they made ideal walking companions – as long as you didn’t ask them to do anything they didn’t want to do! 
 
So when Hugh Thomson decides he wants to revive this ancient tradition, but with a mule who is only willing to carry sandwiches, water and a map, his father can’t quite comprehend why: “Taking a mule across England? Really? Whatever for?” 
 
Using old drovers’ roads that have largely passed into disrepair, Hugh and his trusty mule Jethro set out to travel across England, from the Lake District to the Yorkshire Moors. Along the way, they discover a landscape rich in history, and encounter the charismatic people who bring it to life.

Hugh Thomson

Praise for One Man and a Mule

One Man and Mule is a lovely, good-natured and highly informative journey through the hinterland, emphasizing the human scale of England in all its peculiarities - evocative and wonderfully observed.

[I]t marks rivers, county boundaries, towns and villages relevant to the story, and the route the author took from St Bees on the Irish Sea, the most westerly point of northern England, to Robin Hood’s Bay on the No ...

A thoroughly readable and discursive ramble through visually stimulating and historically fascinating countryside… A perfect book to take on your next holiday

One Man and Mule is a lovely, good-natured and highly informative journey through the hinterland, emphasizing the human scale of England in all its peculiarities - evocative and wonderfully observed.

[I]t marks rivers, county boundaries, towns and villages relevant to the story, and the route the author took from St Bees on the Irish Sea, the most westerly point of northern England, to Robin Hood’s Bay on the No ...

A thoroughly readable and discursive ramble through visually stimulating and historically fascinating countryside… A perfect book to take on your next holiday

One Man and Mule is a lovely, good-natured and highly informative journey through the hinterland, emphasizing the human scale of England in all its peculiarities - evocative and wonderfully observed.

[I]t marks rivers, county boundaries, towns and villages relevant to the story, and the route the author took from St Bees on the Irish Sea, the most westerly point of northern England, to Robin Hood’s Bay on the No ...

A thoroughly readable and discursive ramble through visually stimulating and historically fascinating countryside… A perfect book to take on your next holiday

Books by Hugh Thomson

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