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Read this on the train on way to Pilgrim Cross, it is a book that has been on the pile for a while and the selection of a book about a pilgrimage to Walsingham to read on the train to my own pilgrimage to Walsingham was not intentional.
Sonia Overall writes in a way that gives you a strong sense of place, that takes you on the journey and captures that particular essence of encounter you get when walking which other modes of travel can’t provide.
That her first attempt to get to Walsingham ends in A&E touches on the physically of pilgrimage, not that you should injury yourself but that it is an embodied activity.
A couple of quotes that made me smile:
“You have heard the call. You know what you need to do: you are going to walk to Walsingham.” (p19)
“Every time I see the fens sweep out like this it gives me the same tightness in the chest, that ache of vastness. Some people get this from looking at mountains or a clear night sky. For me, it is that formidable call to the horizon: flat fields, wide open and coal black…” (p191)
