The North Road: ‘A haunting exploration of time, place and memory along the road to London-Edinburgh highway. Radical. Beautiful. Brilliant.’ Robert Macfarlane
£8.50
‘A dazzlingly inventive work of literature’ Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways
‘A wonderful, epic braiding of history, geography and personal memoir’ James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral
‘Stunning…weaving an intricate tapestry of tarmac, humanity and time, as rich as the dark earth on which his many threads lie. It will stay with me.’ Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
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At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.
In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.
Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain’s great highway.
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‘Stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one’ Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole
‘A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip’ Melissa Harrison, author of All Among The Barley
‘Thought-provoking and beautiful’ Matt Gaw, author of Under The Stars
‘A beautifully woven and mesmerising book’ Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen
‘Sweeping, sensitive and enduring’ Tristan Gooley, author of How To Read A Tree
‘Rob has given the A1 an entirely new sense of life’ Luke Turner, author of Out Of The Woods
‘A great and important new work’ Nick Drake
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin (17 April 2025) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 30.1 MB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Print length | 406 pages |
by Dragon Rider
Incredible book. Can’t recommend highly enough. There is a raw openness with the struggle of life that will leave you weeping at times. It will change you in a way that only truly great art can.
by Dragon Rider
Like a walk along the titular road this book is sometimes a meander through deep history, a stroll through boundless imagination, a stride through a deep and tricky thought or even at times a flat out sprint from something that you can sense lurking behind you! I loved this book, even more than Common Ground, which I didn’t think was possible. It is a book that defies definition, forging its own path through publishing and confusing the shelving systems of bookshops everywhere. It is a book of landscape, sense of place, history, nature, biography and imagination, it is a book of wonder, delight and at times deep sadness. I finished this book with pages of underlining, curious thoughts in my head, stories that will haunt me and a deep respect for an author whose writing moves me in ways that so many other books never manage. I will reread this book, most likely many times and I urge anyone who is intrigued by the synopsis to pick it up, settle down and begin.