Dear Reader

SERENDIPITY is a happy word — but it doesn’t seem to knock on the door often. Or, at least, not often enough.

But, this week, a slim book called Globetrotting: Writers Walk The World strolled on to my desk just as I was thinking about the merits of putting one foot in front of the other on a more regular basis.

Having fallen in the Dry January steeplechase at the January 3 fence, I need to do something in a bid to lose weight and this book offers all the encouragement one should need.

Edited by Duncan Minshull, the pied piper of walking, the book brings together the recorded footfalls of more than 50 walker-writers across seven continents, starting with an entry from the French explorer Jacques Cartier in the 1500s through to the likes of Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Shackleton (Antarctica pictured) and those still with us, William Boyd, Colin Thubron et al.

‘Some of the stories told might just persuade you to open a gate and get going somewhere in the world,’ writes Minshull. Absolutely.

Although the sloth in me likes this from John Cheever, the American writer: ‘There is a path through the woods that I could take this rainy morning; but instead I will take the path to the pantry and mix a martini.’

Walking can be done anywhere, of course.

But, as our cover story focuses on how to behave on a plane, I would like to chip in with something that annoys me: people who walk up and down the aisle while the plane is airborne, even though I know it’s good for your circulation.

Of course, the exception to this is those who are cradling babies in the hope that they might drop off. But, in general, the aisle should be kept clear as much as possible.

It’s a space, a pause, and belongs to everyone and no one.