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Linda Cracknell is an author who at the time of the interview was about to have published “Doubling Back–Ten paths trodden in memory” a moving memoir where she retraces ten walks undertaken by others, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Swiss Alps and Kenya. It had been chosen as a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 that was broadcast in the last week of May 2014.
To order a copy of Doubling Back – click on the image
Our interview explores how she sets out to write a narrative of a journey on foot, what she leaves out and how she draws in the reader to the journey or story she tells. Now living in Scotland, her surroundings offer her plenty of variety for walks, short or long, in the surrounding countryside, much of which is devoid of people since the Highland Clearances. Nature and isolation are both important elements in her writing, as are memories conjured or animated by other walks, some personal, some collective some political. Linda has been influenced by the land artist movement, and especially by Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, but is also stirred by the romance of ‘setting off’, as captured in the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson and Laurie Lee. This interview was recorded over the Internet. 29’31” 13.8MB
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What Linda has been doing since our interview
Linda is now writing a quarterly column for Walk Highlands magazine, and an example of her pieces check out “Putting walks into words” for great tips on how to write about walking (March 2017).
Photo credit: Phil Horey Book jacket credit: Freight Books
