My Midsummer
Morning
by Alastair Humphreys William Collins (£14.99)
ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS made a name
for himself by taking on big, impressive
journeys such as cycling around the world.
But more recently he faced the most
daunting adventure of all: fatherhood.
How does a restless, wandering spirit
who is always looking forward to the next
expedition find happiness in life as a parent?
Must his definition of adventure change
if room is to be found for it in this new
chapter of his life? These are the questions
Alastair Humphreys grapples with in
My Midsummer Morning.
At face value, this is an entertaining
story about hiking through Spain with
zero budget and only a violin – which
Humphreys can barely play – to help him
quite literally earn a crust. It’s a journey in
the spirit of Laurie Lee, a young Englishman
who busked through Spain in 1935 and
wrote a book about the experience, As I
Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.
This book becomes Humphreys’ bible, and
he frequently asks himself what Laurie
Lee would do when faced with difficult
situations. Humphreys takes his self-
imposed poverty seriously. He often goes
hungry when he fails to earn enough from
his atrocious scraping and squawking, and
by the end of the trip he describes himself
as a filthy tramp. But the author is highly
conscious of the fact that many of the poorer
people he meets in rural Spain have no
choice, and that ultimately his poverty has adefined endpoint: when he reaches Madrid.
Alastair Humphreys completes this
journey to find out who he really is. His
earlier years as a nomadic traveller, he’d
come to realise, were no longer compatible
with his new life as a father; and he’d noticed
himself becoming bitter and resentful,
feeling caged. He was also increasingly
aware that ambitious trips to wild and
remote places no longer challenged him
in the same way; he knew how to do that
stuff, and it had become his comfort zone.
So he picked an objective that terrified him:
busking for his daily bread. This would push
him far beyond what he knew how to do,
yet a month walking in Spain would be
much more compatible with family life than
an Antarctic expedition, and he hoped it
would provide him with the opportunity to
come up with some answers.
His quest through Spain with a
violin, mirroring Laurie Lee’s journey, is
tremendously rewarding. Humphreys
fails hard and often in his attempts to earn
money with his violin and a few simple
tunes he can just about play, but there are
plenty of triumphs too. For me, this is more
compelling reading than another book
about some daring expedition – it’s honest
and human, and it requires a completely
different kind of courage. As a challenge it
may sound slightly contrived, but aren’t all
adventures contrived when you get down to
it? The constraints of any personal challengeBook
NEWREVIEWSmust be, by definition, personal.
The author’s inner journey is just as
compelling. Without giving away too much,
it’s clear that in Spain Humphreys finds
the perspective he’s been looking for on
adventure, life and family. “Since settling
down to family life I had lost my identity
and washed up lonely and empty,” he writes.
“The years I spent trying to outride and
outsuffer everyone, charging madly at the
world, were not a good model for the next
40 years.” But by the end of the book, he
had found a new truth: “For too long, I had
thought adventure was life. But, actually,
life is the adventure.”
Alex RoddieMany books have been written about the
Lake District, from walking guides to novels,
historical treatises to scientific papers.
Rocks and Rain, Reason and Romance sits
somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.
Written in a tremendously readable narrative
style (think Mountains of the Mind by Robert
Macfarlane), this book aims to illuminate
a complete truth of the Lake District, from
the region’s fiery geological past to more
recent events such as the impact of the
Industrial Revolution.
While the book covers a diverse range of
subjects, there is an overall theme: how the Lake
District’s geological, ecological and prehistoric
roots have shaped and inspired its culture in the
more recent past (and looking towards its
future). A compelling chapter on the Ice Age’s
impact on Lakeland geography (all thoseU-shaped valleys didn’t form themselves)
provides essential context for the Romantic
literary and artistic movement, which is integral
to the Lake District and a major theme in this
book. It might seem strange to be reading about
grinding ice sheets one moment and
Wordsworth’s contemplation of classic views
the next, then from Roman forts to railway-
building; but there is a skilful thread woven
through this story back and forth through the
ages, and it provides a more holistic view of the
Lake District’s true nature than most other
books on the region I’ve read. And as the author
concludes, “There is no right or proper way to
contemplate nature.”
Can the Lake District be said to have a soul?
If it can, Rocks and Rain, Reason and Romance
does a fine job of revealing it. A compelling read.
Alex RoddieRocks and Rain,
Reason and
Romance
by David Howe
Saraband (£9.99)26 The Great OutdoorsAugust 2019