TRUE CHANGE NEEDS TO COME FROM BOTH SIDES

AS YOU can probably tell from our names and, hopefully, photographs, Guy and I come from completely different worlds. I lived in a three-bed council flat in Tottenham, north London, with my mum, three brothers, one sister and her son.

When we started Foot Notes, we thought it would be a walking book by Guy about showing me the beauty of the countryside. He would provide content while I would get to see England by foot and, hopefully, lose some of my anxiety.

Instead, after the first chapter, Guy told me: “I know you don’t like writing, but I think you need to have a voice in this book.” First, it was just a few lines here and there, then I got another email from Guy: “I’m gonna need more from you.” So, we agreed. Guy would write most of the book and I would be given free rein to comment. As we walked, he told me about how great Britain was, and I droned on about where the wealth and greatness originally stemmed from – mostly the Empire and the exploitation of people.

We walked for days, Guy watching everyone’s reaction to seeing a black man in the countryside and trying to work out what they thought. He felt people were being racist; I mostly thought everyone was being normal.

This probably sounds like another liberal book where the reader is about to be lectured about this and that, but it isn’t. After I read the book, I was scared of being cancelled. I asked my black mates how bad they thought the damage was. But I mostly got “lol” (laugh out loud) in reply. They told me it was “funny” with a few “problematic things” but mostly “all good”.

Then we were asked to go on Clare Balding’s show. At first, I was stressed as we’d done two previous interviews and I didn’t think they’d gone especially well; we had a lot of me saying nothing or just batting the questions over to Guy when I froze.

So this time I was a bit more prepared, and a bit more confident, knowing it wasn’t going to be live.

To me, Clare was the lady from television who does Crufts, Wimbledon and the horses. But straight away you could tell she was a broadcasting legend, her descriptions of the landscape seriously put you there. I stopped to look around every time she described the scenery – exactly what we were looking at but in a way I couldn’t. She basically wrote a poem on the spot.

I spent a few minutes on that walk wondering, “How am I going to get my mates to listen to this, how should I post it on my socials etc?” because we aren’t exactly the target audience – most of us don’t even listen to the radio. Then I found out episodes are available as podcasts: perfect!

I’d love to see more of Britain, just maybe not on foot. I’ve suggested some different modes of transport from horseback, to caravanning! And certainly, more minorities should get out and enjoy places like Cornwall and the Lake District. True change has got to come from both sides. If it was just people going out to the country and keeping to themselves, there would be no change. People have to talk. But getting out and about is a start.