The Crossway

by Guy Stagg Picador, R300

One day, Guy Stag came home from his soulless desk job and went to bed. For the next few months — in the grip of a profound depression — he could barely leave the house. Somewhere in the darkness, he stumbled upon his plan for a cure — to walk the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent.

It was a difficult and badly planned trek but it lit a fire under him. Instead of stopping in Canterbury, Stagg carried on to Jerusalem on a 10-month, 5 500km hike — a “walking cure”, if you will — along the classic pilgrims’ trails across Europe, relying every night on the kindness of strangers.

On the way, Stagg — who is not a religious man — meets fellow pilgrims and monks and nuns, who shelter and feed him and give him a glimpse of how faith endures and prospers in a crazy and dangerous world. —