WATLING STREET

(W&N £9.99) ‘LONG ago, a path was created through endless forest. Gradually that path became a trackway, and the trackway became a road.

‘It connected the white cliffs of Dover to the druid groves of the Welsh island of Anglesey.

‘In the Dark Ages it gained the name Watling Street. More recently, it has been given names like the A2, the A5 and the M6 Toll.

‘ Watling Street is a palimpsest; it is always being rewritten. It is a road of witches and ghosts, of queens and highwaymen.

‘There is no road in the world that has produced so many stories.’

For John Higgs, Watling Street is a microcosm of our national identity — a place where 007 meets Robin Hood.

His quirky and colourful pilgrimage along this prehistoric pathway finds him seeking out old and new stories to guide us through these unsettling times.