Tag Archives: car-free

Wendy Landman talking walking

Andrew Stuck was attending the Made of Walking gathering of artists at La Romieu in remote south west France, when Andrew was surprised to meet American walking activist Wendy Landman, an executive director of WalkBoston, one of America’s longest running pedestrian advocacy groups. She is here, on an invitation from her college friend and artist Carol Mencke.

WalkBoston walk audit in action in the snow

Wendy discovers that the walking artists at Made of Walking are grappling with many of the issues that Walk Boston has encountered too.  In the blazing sun, they walk along gravel paths, seeking shade, and discuss how walking and pleasurable walkable places are now seen as key elements of quality of life for increasing numbers of Americans.  And how through subtle change in vocabulary, from talking about art to talking about delight  – the delight of walking and of delightful places – hearts and minds of politicians can be won over to the cause of better conditions for those of us who travel on foot.  25’21” 11.9MB

Download notes of items mentioned in the interview with Wendy_Landman

Phoebe Taplin talking walking

Phoebe Taplin, a freelance journalist and international walk route author, talks to Andrew Stuck. At the time of the interview Phoebe had recently returned from Moscow, where she and her husband had lived for the past 4 years. In her effort to discover the city, she formed a walking group and researched where to walk in Moscow. MoscowWalksSpringMany of these walks were published in the Moscow News, a local paper, and Phoebe is selecting 48 of these to be published in guide book form. The interview was recorded in May 2011 on a walk around residential streets in Bishops Stortford, a marked contrast from many of the walks in Moscow. 20’39” 9.7MB

Download notes from the interview with Phoebe_Taplin

BookcoverWhat has Phoebe done since our interview

“2011 onwards: I have a walking group, composed of random friends and contacts, and I lead walks most weeks all over the South East and beyond… We’ve walked the Capital Ring, London Loop, Thames path, Herts Way, Essex Way, Icknield Way and many others… Last year we also explored (among other things) ‘Global London’, following on from several years of ‘Russian London’…

2011-2012 – Wrote four seasonal walking guides to Moscow; 11,000 copies of each one were published! The Summer guide has now sold out and Autumn is almost gone; Spring and Winter still available (for now) on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moscow-Walks-Winter-Phoebe-Taplin/dp/5905600023. Since we talked, the international arm of the old state news agency Ria Novosti, which published my books, has been closed down by the Russian Government and the Moscow News is long gone too. I think they were both a bit too independent for the increasingly authoritarian regime there.

2013 – Wrote a little book about Henley-on-Thames for Pitkin Press and the Rowing Museum https://www.amazon.co.uk/Henley-Thames-Pitkin/dp/1841654299/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Since the interview, I have explored the area I now live in very thoroughly and been involved in the local Footpath association…
2014-2015 – Wrote two walking guides to the lovely Harcamlow Way (a long distance route through Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire), also available on amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=harcamlow+way

Regular contributions to various travel magazines including Country Walking Magazine, covering East of England and beyond.

2018 – two forthcoming books of film-related walks upcoming with Pitkin Press. One of these is a Film Lovers Guide to Oxford, including walks along the Thames Path and beyond. The other is a guide to locations for the TV series Outlander (!) around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

My other latest project involves researching car-free travel guides across the UK for a new website, Good Journey, which promotes and celebrates getting about on trains, buses, on foot and by bike, https://www.goodjourney.org.uk/.”