Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of ‘pilgrimage’ in modern Britain
* A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR *
“Excellent…immensely well-researched and playful. Smith has written something special.” -- Patrick Galbraith, The Times
"Imaginative and engaging" -- Country Life
Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of ‘pilgrimage’ in Britain by retracing sacred travel made across time, from murmurs of ritual journeys in the depths of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century.
He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes – climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage.
The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless truth: that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, “the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul.”
"
Excellent…a cornucopia of unusual and fascinating people…Oliver Smith’s excellent travelogue makes it clear that the desire to go on spiritual journeys is so much larger than the Christian tradition.
[...] Through exploring a vast array of places that have become subjects of our spiritual attention and by speaking to the people who flock to them, Smith paints an extraordinary picture of British faith at its most eccentric.’
[...] rich with information, historical detail and descriptive prose [...] the book is immensely well-researched and playful. Smith has written something special.
" - The Times
"
It is the ancient uncomfortably pushing against the modern that fascinates Smith… aiming to “travel deeper, not further”, and his itinerary is an array of hallowed places mixed in with Bill Bryson-like pit stops involving “Welcome Breaks and Ginsters pasties”. Roaming Britain from sea caves to railway lines to fly-tipped suburbia, by way of venerated places such as Iona Abbey and Glastonbury Tor, he also leads us to lesser-known pilgrimage destinations like Walsingham, a tiny village known as “England’s Nazareth” where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1061…
The overriding message is that every pilgrimage is unique and what is required is an open mind. To embark with hope and then, as he puts it, “to break through the crust of the familiar to find the fantastical”.
" - Financial Times
"There has been a post pandemic rash of writers rushing hither and thither across Britain for book material, but this is one of the most imaginative and engaging." - Country Life
"Post-pandemic, it makes even more sense to look locally before setting off for Rome, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela. On This Holy Island shows us just where to start." - The Spectator
Формат: Скан PDf
* A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR *
“Excellent…immensely well-researched and playful. Smith has written something special.” -- Patrick Galbraith, The Times
"Imaginative and engaging" -- Country Life
Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of ‘pilgrimage’ in Britain by retracing sacred travel made across time, from murmurs of ritual journeys in the depths of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century.
He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes – climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage.
The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless truth: that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, “the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul.”
"
Excellent…a cornucopia of unusual and fascinating people…Oliver Smith’s excellent travelogue makes it clear that the desire to go on spiritual journeys is so much larger than the Christian tradition.
[...] Through exploring a vast array of places that have become subjects of our spiritual attention and by speaking to the people who flock to them, Smith paints an extraordinary picture of British faith at its most eccentric.’
[...] rich with information, historical detail and descriptive prose [...] the book is immensely well-researched and playful. Smith has written something special.
" - The Times
"
It is the ancient uncomfortably pushing against the modern that fascinates Smith… aiming to “travel deeper, not further”, and his itinerary is an array of hallowed places mixed in with Bill Bryson-like pit stops involving “Welcome Breaks and Ginsters pasties”. Roaming Britain from sea caves to railway lines to fly-tipped suburbia, by way of venerated places such as Iona Abbey and Glastonbury Tor, he also leads us to lesser-known pilgrimage destinations like Walsingham, a tiny village known as “England’s Nazareth” where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1061…
The overriding message is that every pilgrimage is unique and what is required is an open mind. To embark with hope and then, as he puts it, “to break through the crust of the familiar to find the fantastical”.
" - Financial Times
"There has been a post pandemic rash of writers rushing hither and thither across Britain for book material, but this is one of the most imaginative and engaging." - Country Life
"Post-pandemic, it makes even more sense to look locally before setting off for Rome, Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostela. On This Holy Island shows us just where to start." - The Spectator
Формат: Скан PDf
https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/on-this-holy-island-a-modern-pilgrimage-across-britain-a-financial-times-book-of-the-year.html