Other than being a fabulous book, the reason for it to be included in the Thames Estuary Library is one particular chapter, the one which some reviewers single out as the most captivating one, and which, when Macfarlane read it out at 2013’s Shorelines festival (LINK), filled the hall in Leigh-on-Sea’s Community centre to the last seat: the description of his walk along the Broomway. Above all, this is a book about people and place: about walking as a reconnoitre inwards, and the subtle ways in which we are shaped by the landscapes through which we move.' (from author's note) ' is an exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt ancient paths, of the tales that tracks keep and tell, of pilgrimage and trespass, of songlines and their singers and of the strange continents that exist within countries. He literally starts walking from his front door. As Theroux in Kingdom by the Sea, Macfarlane, who travelled to many places far, remote (and high in altitude) in this book mostly turns his attention to the landscapes of the British Isles, and – as the title suggests – the pathways which have negotiated its terrain for centuries, if not millennia. I have always had a soft spot for travel books – Dervla Murphy's (hair-raising) account of her solo bicycle trip to Afghanistan, Leigh-Fermor's fabulous trio of books about his walk to Istanbul at the onset of WWII, Eric Newby's 'A Short Walk in the Hindukush', Paul Theroux (especially 'Kingdom by the Sea') and so on. It was the first Macfarlane book (and still remains the only one) I read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The old ways macfarlane