Alison Gelder

At last, someone has written a new style of travel book OK, so you decide to walk to Rome from your home in London. What would your ideal route look like? The most direct path, perhaps? The one that everyone uses and is easy to follow? Not so for Alison and Ian. Their preferred route had to pass through Lourdes, so the final path took a minor detour of a thousand miles. What could possibly go wrong? Well, apart from the odd forest fire, the disappearing paths, the lack of way marking and loss of maps and, of course, a lot of steep hills, it turned out to be a breeze. Thankfully, this odd couple decided to provide us with their amazing record of the journey across England, France and Italy. It has already been called a total immersion experience of modern pilgrimage, but it is much more than that. It is a journey that will draw you in and entrance you so much you will not even stop to ask yourself why you have packed your rucksack and put your walking shoes on. Just remember to take your door keys with you when you go - even pilgrims have to return home eventually. But whether you go or stay, you will be looking out for the book of their next adventures