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Past and present converge as Linda Cracknell doubles back to walk in the footsteps of others.
Across Norway, Kenya, and the northerly islands of Skye in Scotland and Lindisfarne in England, Doubling Back traces the contours of history. Following paths long mythologized by writers and relatives gone before, Linda Cracknell charts how places immortalized in writing and memory create portals; wrinkles in time and geography that allow us to recreate journeys of others moving at a slow and steady pace, on foot.
Join Linda as she traverses the dangerous crevasses of the Swiss Alps to retrace the mountaineering past of the father she barely knew. Walk with her as she follows the escape route of a Norwegian scientist on the run in the Second World War, or as she simply celebrates the joy found in the 'friendly paths' of her local, regular terrain, and the rhythms and ritual of returning home.
Published in the UK to rave reviews and serialized on BBC radio, this beautifully rendered account of walking and memory helps us to locate ourselves in time and space and to reflect on our future on this fragile Earth.
“Cracknell wonderfully explores the strange durability of the paths that we make in our lives, in our dreams and after our deaths.” Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland and The Old Ways
“A poignant and passionate memoir … a heartfelt exploration of the mental and physical landscapes that shape our lives.” Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being
“Not so much a book to inspire you to do her walks, but to challenge you to enjoy your own walks more. Refreshing, lovely, fun: good walking and good writing.” Sara Maitland, author of From the Forest and A Book of Silence
“A winning combination of memoir, travelogue and literary meditation.” Daily Mail
“An object lesson in attentive looking … wonderfully intense.” Scotsman
“There is not a step taken in this book that does not engage the writer, and so the reader. To walk with Linda Cracknell is to explore landscape and memory … It is to be enriched by the compulsions of a lifetime.” Tom Pow, poet
The Opening Door, Boscastle, Cornwall; Dancing, Kicking up her Legs, A hillside near Abriachan, Loch Ness; Stairway to Heaven? Relleu to Valle de Laguart, Alicante, Spain; Baring our Soles, Ndumberi Village, Central Kenya; Pappa’s Shoes, A Wartime escape route, Norway; Outlasting our Tracks, Finsteraarhorn, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland; The Return of Hoof Beats, Newtonmore to Kirkmichael, Cairngorms, Scotland; The Dogs’ Route, A drove road between Perthshire and the Isle of Skye, Scotland; To be a Pilgrim, Saint Cuthbert’s Way, Melrose to Lindisfarne; Friendly Paths, The Birks of Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland; Notes and Bibliography; Acknowledgements