BOOKS, RADIO AND TV
Kate Humble celebrates the many profound impacts and joys of this simple activity
What to read and listen to, from the joys of walking to the story of the oak.
THINKING ON MY FEET KATE HUMBLE, ASTER, £20 (HB)
“It is a wonderful feeling to be out in this cosseting darkness. All my senses feel alive and alert. I don’t feel scared. Not a bit. I feel primeval, a creature of the forest. But I do slightly hope that Ludo has started to cook supper.”
Thinking on My Feet – The Small Joy of Putting One Foot in Front of the Other describes Kate’s walks taken daily over the course of a year. Being a globetrotting television presenter, some of them are in exotic overseas locations, others are around Britain. But most are in the Wye Valley and its surrounding landscape, where she lives, and is accompanied, always, by at least one dog.
It is a cosy, friendly book. Kate’s message is simple: walking is good for you – body, mind and soul. She pays tribute to other thinkers, scientists and walkers, and while there are no new insights, neither is it challenging; you feel safe from the outset that nothing here will shake your world, or make you uneasy.
A glossy sumptuous hardback appropriate to her fame, her prose, while not glittering, is nevertheless thoughtful and reassuring; you can hear her voice as you would that of an old friend, and feel affection for the book as if it had been written by one. Which in a way, it has. Julie Brominicks, walker and writer