tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60183574526930253022024-03-14T08:30:49.304+00:00Walking and WritingIn 2007, I started writing about journeys in which I followed previous walkers: drovers, writers, servants bearing laundry, my own father, among others. I'm fascinated by the paths and marks they've left behind them, both in the land and in memory. Walking is both a tool and a subject in my own writing; writing a way of being truly alive as I walk, and reliving each journey in words.Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-87868448544696388072012-12-04T19:21:00.002+00:002012-12-04T19:21:52.242+00:00How to write on a camel
Walking with animals Part 2
Camels are a bit different to ponies (see last post). Getting on and off them is more interesting for a start. But they have quite a different rhythm to ponies. It seemed to lope up through the songs drummed and 'clash-clashed' with the local castanet-cum-cymbal instruments around the firelight of our Saharan camp on an excursion from Cafe Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-91230042636569097612012-10-16T09:30:00.000+00:002012-10-16T22:06:41.355+00:00Walking with animals
My article below has recently appeared in The Geographer, the newsletter of the very wonderful Royal Scottish Geographical Society who helped organise this July 2012 journey in partnership with Speygrian. Any observations on walking with animals very welcome.
A Love Affair and a Dirty Right Arm
‘If this is Montana,’ Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-31759814933452969902012-06-01T16:29:00.001+00:002012-08-11T14:21:01.703+00:00The King's Way
A delightful four-day walk over last weekend, joining up
places I know with new ones, and making them into a continuous journey: Inverness to Tain. Lines carved through ripe barley
fields; sunshine, skies of searing blue followed by cool, clamping haar; Hugh
Miller’s fossil rich sandstone coast up the Black isle to Cromarty; cavorting
dolphins gathering a hushed congregation on the beach,Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-21852301415651131962012-04-25T16:45:00.000+00:002012-04-25T16:49:14.194+00:00In Explorers' Footsteps
I was honoured to spend World Book Night (23rd April) in the Explorers' Room at the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in Perth reading from 'Following our Fathers' ina room packed with maps, photographs and books. What a treat! I was reading with Gavin Francis, talking about polar travels, and Jamie Grant talking about following his father on the Bolivian Altiplano. A great evening.http://Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-7745620226848513112012-04-13T15:58:00.019+00:002012-04-13T17:16:15.436+00:00walking home from the office‘Nothing educates the eye for the features of a landscape so well as the practice of measuring it by your own legs’. Leslie Stephen said this in an essay, ‘In Praise of Walking’, and it perhaps sums up best the impulse that pushed me out of my office and through the back gate of Stirling University to start my walk home on a sunny March evening recently.I emerged into the leafy streets of Bridge Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-43218375208919092552012-04-03T18:07:00.004+00:002012-04-25T16:46:45.546+00:00'Following our Fathers' reviewed in Northwords
The current issue of Northwords, a marvellous journal, carried this interesting review of the new wee book:
Following Our Fathers –Two Journeys among Mountainsby Linda CracknellBest Foot Books (www.lindacracknell.com)Review by Stephen KeelerBeginnings and endings are rarely clear-cut,
discrete or readily identifiable. Towards the
end of the first of the two accounts which
make up this Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-25230312249006087102012-02-03T13:05:00.014+00:002012-04-25T16:47:19.373+00:00Following our Fathers - new from 'best foot books'
My latest ‘best foot book’ is officially published in a week’s time. Following our Fathers: Two Journeys among Mountains is non-fiction mountain literature with personal stories at its craggy heart. As the blurb says:
‘Two men make significant journeys on foot, one in Nazi-occupied Norway, 1944, and one in the Swiss Alps, 1952. Both die as young men from cancer in 1961. More than half a Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-40617432863195849512011-11-01T21:40:00.004+00:002011-11-01T21:55:51.537+00:00All Hallows on Dùn CoillichCommunion with past spirits; a waving off of summer; fancy dress; freakish acts of nature. It’s Halloween. And I’m lured away from these seasonal concerns towards fresh air and a snatch of big bright daylight on the summit of Dùn Coillich. I take the route newly marked to pass a number of archaeological features. Relics of shieling huts have been located to the south of the summit and the Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-1759549488893539692011-10-17T19:46:00.007+00:002011-10-17T20:35:05.850+00:00Waking up with Will SelfWill Self's ten minute programme on Sunday morning, 'In Praise of Wind Turbines' was a fine thing to wake up to, even though I did have to listen again to properly absorb his argument rather than just floating to consciousness for the stinging metaphors and gobbets of wit. In his usual acerbic style, he questioned the attitudes of those who consider wind turbines ugly and unnatural, pointing out Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-34903443203839065162011-09-19T16:02:00.005+00:002011-09-19T17:09:44.084+00:00The PEN is mightier..I've just returned fom the 77th International PEN Congress in Belgrade. Very interesting and important in many ways, it involved long hours in an assembly of writers from 90 countries. However, I was also able to get out and walk around the city, which was where I came across this fellow, Dositej Obradovic (1742-1811).He caught my eye for several reasons, not least his dynamic posture with hat Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-63213666283535834352011-09-09T15:22:00.012+00:002011-09-09T17:06:26.587+00:00power lines, uprisings and cattle droving'You'll maybe no be welcome in there now,' the driver said to me as I got out of his pickup at Laggan Stores. 'It’s Chief Anti Campaign Woman runs the shop’.He was referring to the fact that ‘Balfour Beatty’ was emblazoned along the side of the vehicle in which I'd just hitched a lift – the company now installing a much resisted power line between Beauly and Denny. In fact, I knew ‘Chief Anti Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-55526873430478847822011-08-29T16:26:00.002+00:002011-08-29T16:38:17.913+00:00Eccentric Wealth on the Isle of Rum
I'm delighted to see that Alastair Scott's book 'Eccentric Wealth' about the relationship between Sir George Bullough and the Isle of Rum is out now. This is the background to my story (published in a pocket book format) of the servants' walk from Kinloch 'Castle' across the island to the laundry in 'Whiter than White'. I'm looking forward to reading it, and learning more about the Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-74726158175705144902011-08-25T20:51:00.005+00:002011-08-25T21:08:41.385+00:00Walking Men
I love this art project by Stephen Wragg - a photographic record of the painted men who walk under our feet, striding, dancing, or mincing across the tarmac. Better still, he's inviting photo submissions, so keep your eyes peeled for your local walking men!
You might imagine we live in a country with tight design standards and control - but no, self-expression is flourishing in Highways Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-6840351751910400782011-07-29T15:33:00.011+00:002011-08-08T09:54:19.057+00:00Saint Fillan got me walking againIt wasn't quite a Lazarus moment, but curiosity about this early Celtic Saint gave my leg the longest stretch it's had since injury back in April. The curiosity was inspired by a tiny writing commission of 62 words as part of the '26 Treasures' project which has matched writers to 26 objects at the National Museum of Scotland, with equivalent schemes in Belfast and Aberystwyth. The 62 words are Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-7207710659652457062011-06-15T17:19:00.007+00:002011-06-15T17:49:20.325+00:00On not walking, but writing It's two months now since I was heaved off the tarmac of a tennis court to take up a supine position with a bag of frozen peas. Even now my right leg doesn't quite keep up with the breezy swing of my left, and protests if it goes too far or has to tackle inclines.Although quite seriously disabled by my torn hamstring, I never completely stopped walking. At first it was only the 200 yards or so Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-19402399081142945372011-04-29T11:46:00.005+00:002011-04-29T12:11:14.398+00:00Following our FathersMeredith Robinson, who is currently undertaking an MLitt in Publishing Studies at Stirling University displays the illustrated book she has created for her course project: Following our Fathers: Two Journeys among Mountains. The book comprises two essays, photos and hand-drawn maps extracted from my longer essay collection, Doubling Back, which was shortlisted in 2009 for the Robin Jenkins Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-84581709857132535042011-03-09T20:12:00.012+00:002011-03-09T21:03:55.833+00:00Maps in the sandsI've been spellbound by a chance reading of 'Arabian Sands' by explorer Wilfred Thesiger, of whom I knew little until I read this obituary (he died in 2003). My copy of the book published in 1959, has a linen map folded into a pocket at the back, immediately endearing it to me. It charts in red lines Thesiger's extraordinary traverses across Rub al Khali (The Empty Quarter), the vast area of Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-14894068264204213952011-01-29T19:14:00.025+00:002011-01-29T21:34:59.278+00:00Trails and TranslationIn Oman, I indulged my usual preoccupations in a new landscape. I was drawn to lines representing journeys; built structures that penetrate wilderness. How could I resist, with so much space, with textures of sand and rock and sea.A single set of footprints left in Wahabi Desert dunes – an archive of a journey that was almost eradicated overnight by the reorganising wind.Animal prints sunk into Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-42612343984895105282011-01-04T09:18:00.008+00:002011-01-04T11:35:31.679+00:00'Waller and Dyker' review of The Beat of Heart StonesDelighted to have 'The Beat of Heart Stones' reviewed in the official magazine of the Dry Stone Walling Association, Winter 2010.This book brings to life the building process of an old dyke, the history it has witnessed and the life it supported in a brilliantly evocative way. I challenge you not to become involved with these living stones by the end of the journey.Richard LoveLinda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-87937416557588820752010-12-07T20:56:00.005+00:002010-12-07T21:20:46.997+00:00winter trees I can't claim to have been doing much walking over the last week or so, but I have been shuffling around on my skis with my eyes frost-struck and a camera in hand. This particular weather event has dressed the trees - ghosting their arterial shapes with white echoes; baubling them with ice-lights ; laying low mists to worship at their feet; and scouring the skies with purple dusks to backlight Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-35277800012853569342010-11-07T16:45:00.005+00:002010-11-07T17:04:25.239+00:00Paths to writingIt was lovely to hear Claire Tomalin talking on this afternoon's Radio 4 Book Club about her biography of Thomas Hardy: 'The Time-Torn Man'. She spoke of how significant to becoming a writer the long walk to school had been to Hardy, offering him a rich internal life. When I read the biography, whilst I was re-walking some of Hardy's Cornish paths, I was very struck by that childhood development,Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-5387754607329093212010-10-28T09:38:00.002+00:002010-10-28T09:41:01.503+00:00the poem and the pathMarvellous series on Radio Three's 'The Essay' this week in which Andrew Motion explores the relationship between walking and writing through a number of poems.Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-46469780729879098832010-10-27T16:50:00.010+00:002010-10-28T09:11:25.682+00:00Autumn in ArdgourI needed to gasp some lung-fulls of the clear autumn air that the last few days suddenly gifted us, and grasp at some of that scoured-sharp light before the clocks changed. Ardgour was my target - the diamond shaped piece of land more or less bounded by Lochs Shiel, Eil, Linnhe and Sunart.The area first demanded my attention from Strontian at its south-western corner when I was walking through Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-32090246441634966422010-10-22T14:40:00.013+00:002010-10-22T17:11:02.821+00:00Creative JourneysLast week, the Times Educational Supplement covered an unusual project I was involved with at Kingussie High School in September. About twenty facilitators -- artists, writers, natural historians, craftspeople -- with a particular interest in outdoor learning, converged for two days, and took the entire second year on a 'creative journey'. With 100 pupils and 10 teachers, this was quite a Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6018357452693025302.post-28753732993685198082010-09-23T18:33:00.003+00:002010-09-23T18:43:40.056+00:00Values of Environmental WritingGlasgow University is undertaking an interesting research project exploring the relationship between reading habits and pro-environmental behaviour. Looking at what is referred to as 'Creative Environmental Writing', the project raises a lot of interesting questions about the role and responsibility of writers in challenging times, how easy it is to 'track' reading choices and attitudes, and the Linda Cracknell http://www.blogger.com/profile/15297389660800808299noreply@blogger.com1