The January Man: a year of walking Britain Audiobook (Free)

Random Home presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook release of The January Guy by Christopher Somerville, read by Christopher Somerville.

In January 2006, per month or two after my dad died, I thought I saw him again – a momentary impression of an old man, a little stooped, leaving to get a walk in his feature fawn corduroys and shabby quilted jacket. After teenage rifts it was strolling that brought us nearer as dad and son; which ‘ghost’ of Dad has been strolling at my approximately The January Man: a yr of walking Britain elbow since his death, as I’ve ruminated on his great like of strolling, his prodigious should do it – and how and why I walk myself.

The January Man is the tale of the year of walks that was inspired by a music, Dave Goulder’s ‘The January Man’. Month by month, period by time of year and region by region, Christopher Somerville strolls the United kingdom Isles, pursuing routes that continuously bring his dad to brain. As he moves the united states – from the wintertime floodlands of the River Severn to the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs in the Shetland Isle of Foula in June as well as the historic oaks of Sherwood Forest in fall – he explains the history, wildlife, landscapes and folks he encounters, down back again lanes and older paths, in rain and fair weather conditions.

This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not merely inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140,000 miles of footpaths over the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we are able to come to a knowledge of ourselves and our fellow walkers. Over the hills and along the byways, Christopher Somerville examines what moulded the males of his father’s era – therefore reticent about their wartime encounters, therefore self-effacing, upright and dutiful – as he looks for ‘the guy inside the guy’ that his personal father actually was.