Walking Away review – Simon Armitage’s prosaic nation

The poet’s account of walking the South West Coast Path could have done with a bit more – well, poetry

Simon Armitage at Appledore, north Devon, with the walking stick he cut from a holly bush in his garden. Photograph: Faber and Faber

Rachel Cooke

Sunday 21 June 2015 The Guardian

In 2010, Simon Armitage walked the Pennine Way, proceeding north to south in the direction of his home in Marsden, west Yorkshire, reading poetry each night in exchange for his bed and board. He took no money with him; rather, he asked his audience to put whatever they thought he was worth into a sock he passed round, an item of hosiery he would investigate later somewhat trepidatiously in the quiet of a strange bedroom (for which reason, I’ve always wondered why he didn’t just use a hat). 
He regarded this journey, occasionally lonely and frequently arduous, as a test both of his reputation and that of poetry in general, and his warm-hearted account of it, Walking Home, went on to become a bestseller.
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