This was an interesting read on walking through the countryside near the homes or vacation spots of with several writers. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I highly recommend it to those interested in nature, rambling walks through the countryside, and the lives of authors.

Thank you to Oneworld Publications, the author and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book. It's hard to explain what it is - although I think it was described as a "Nature Book" it's so much more than that. The author takes the reader on a journey all around Britain, which he himself completes, following some of Britain's authors on journeys they made in the past. Some of the authors are household names, whose work I was familiar with - Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Enid Blyton, Edith Somerville and Samuel Johnson. Others I hadn't much experience with - Violet "Martin" Ross, Beryl Bainbridge, James Boswell, Celia Fiennes, J.B Priestley and Gerald of Wales. The book reads like a conversation, as if we are in the pub or on the road or in the woodlands with the author. He writes with humour, sensitivity and, of course, a social conscience which is penetrating without being preachy. I love how we got to know the authors, warts and all. I will never think of Enid Blyton, Wilkie Collins or Charles Dickens in quite the same way - although I won't love their work any less! Reading this book has opened up a whole new world for me in both the literal world and the literary one. I'm off to read 'Oak and Ash and Thorn' by the same writer right now, after I make a quick donation to Trees for Life (Scotland).

Fiennes is such as good writer that everything flows quite brilliantly along; this is almost like reading more than one book at once, and all the more enjoyable for it. Footnotes encourages the reader to experience places for themselves, and as they were fifty, two hundred years, or seven centuries ago. It reminds us that people don’t change much really, that we all carry our baggage with us. After reading this I immediately felt like putting on my boots, packing a bag and heading out with any of these writerly guides. I’m sure they would take me – as they took Peter Feinnes – on fascinating journeys.

From concept through to execution, this is an interesting, charming read that manages to be both empathetic and insightful. The writing was fluid and blended quotes and prose into a cohesive blend of profile, historical description, and commentary.

Very enjoyable.

Fiennes travels the UK following the paths taken by notable writers like Dickens, Priestley, Blyton, Johnson and Boswell. He offers details about their careers and journeys, augmented by his own experience. This has been done before but Fiennes is often entertaining, occasionally enlightening and has good eye for the tiny details the lift this book above the competition. I suspect that he may have been limited in his scope, perhaps under the guidance of the publisher or editor, and that somewhere there are large chunks that have been excised, full of trivia and personal observations, even sidetracks about other writers who trode the same paths. There is ample scope for a follow-upand I look forward to sharing more literary miles.

Peter Fiennes is an amazingly talented author. I had not read any of his previous work, but Footnotes was an excellent introduction.

The premise of the book Footnotes is that Fiennes was going to travel around England, visiting places frequented or inhabited by famous English writers and writing about his experience.. This premise had the potential to work well or completely flop. Its success hinges completely on the ability of Fiennes to draw the reader in to this literary and physical journey.

I have never set foot in England, and yet after traveling with Peter in the footsteps of some of Britain’s finest authors, I feel like I actually have. (To do so in reality is one of my heart’s most fervent desires.)

Footnotes is wonderfully written and Fiennes is a witty, self-deprecating tour guide. As a lover of the written word and all things British, this book was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Now I want to go back and read his first book, Oak and Ash and Thorn.

I’d first seen Footnotes on a review website I occasionally visit and decided to take a look, I’d not heard of Peter Fiennes before but the description of the book was certainly appealing enough for me to buy a copy. “A Journey Round Britain in the company of Great Writers” emblazoned across the front cover certainly adds to the impending adventure awaiting revelation on every page and Footnotes certainly delivers on its claim. Regardless of our personal favourites we cannot deny that almost everyone of the writers that undertook these journeys originally have touched our lives in some way, learning more about Enid Blyton (regardless of the opinion of her youngest daughter, Imogen and other surrounding issues ) I enjoyed reminiscing about my younger days reading my mothers’ copies of Blyton’s books at my grandmothers house.

Fiennes, however, follows Blyton on her trips to Swanage and around Dorset, where many of her stories are based and reveals a personal side of Blyton that many readers, such as myself, were previously unaware and for any reader who may, or may not, have an interest in Blyton this is a revealing and enjoyable romp around Dorset with one of the country’s most prolific children’s writers.

Aside from traversing around following such great writers, Footnotes paints pictures not just of the country that has long past but blends the old in with the new with seamless perfection, and Footnotes is by no means just a simple book, which I’d first assumed. Delving deeper following in the footsteps of Gerald of Wales, we come to the idyllic little church of St Issui’s, near Abergavenny, in Monmouthshire. It is really from here that there is a shift in the narrative that becomes more ‘observational’ and noting the changes in the world with the old and the new, reminded me very much of what I’d recently read in Julian Hoffman’s Irreplaceable where the reader is taken through a tour around the world of places and wildlife disappearing all in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ . Fiennes succinctly declares “We have drained the wild from this world, even in the empty places” and looking at many places I’ve visited and read about in numerous books recently I don’t think I could put it better. I did wonder if at Saint issues did he go inside to see the portrait of doom on the wall, or see the beautiful Bible or even visit the well which has been a site of pilgrimage for centuries. It may not have been mentioned by Gerald but it’s certainly worth a visit.

Moving throughout the country at the frenetic pace of a locomotive which took Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to Doncaster, we are taken further north to Liverpool, which saw staggering economic decline during the 1980s and has since risen to become (in 2008) City of Culture and a destination for any self affirmed Beatles fan. Our time with Beryl Bainbridge and J.B. Priestley act as a mirror from the 1930s to the modern day, with Bainbridge acting as a go-between negotiating the past and the present with her travels during the 1980s. Travelling through the North East and Jarrow, Fiennes narrates the views of Priestley and Bainbridge on the history of the North East, the poverty and deprivation of the earlier part of the twentieth century with a skill that is some of the best written work I’ve read on the subject for a long time.

Footnotes, however isn’t just a juxtaposition of the old and new, it’s discovering the old worlds of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Samuel Johnson and James Bosworth and Edith Somerville and Violet ‘Martin’ Ross who have all made their indelible marks on the psyche of the country. Their works are now many of the views and streets we walk, we even look at aspects of social decline in some areas and describe them as ‘Dickensian’, something Fiennes reminds us of throughout the book.

Footnotes started with following some of the great writers around the country on their journeys, but what came from reading was so much more, and not just a renewed interest in some authors I’d dismissed in my youth. These authors did not just travel the country, they created a social document that we should keep in mind with our more disposable society, and Peter Fiennes reveals them to us in not just an informative way but a human and witty style that keeps the reader captivated from start to finish.

•  Footnotes by Peter Fiennes is published by One World (£16.99). To order a copy go to www.oneworld-publications.com

This book is a simple idea very well executed. The author visits various parts of Britain which held some meaning to a writer, philosopher or poet. He talks about the places, the writers and their works. So there it is. And yet this book is so much more than that. There is humour, there is pathos. He is honest about the subjects (places and people) and it isn’t all gorgeous and glory. He touches on the difficulties of some writers and their works and he writes in great depth about a diverse group of people. We have Wilkie Collins, JB Priestley, Charles Dickens and others.

When Mr Fiennes talks about Enid Blyton, for instance, and her trips to Swanage and Corfe Castle, he also talks about whether she was a bad mother, whether she was racist, what makes her stories so fascinating for children, etc. He wears his learning lightly and the whole book is fun and a fast read. But it isn’t simple, there is complexity and there is respect.

Recommended for the literary ramblers in your life who are difficult to buy gifts for.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Footnotes has been quite a journey around Britain following the travels of earlier journal writers, quite literally, sometimes on foot, other times by car or train as Fiennes’ forebears traveled by foot, horseback, carriage, and railway. To finish his journey, the author provides what seems a perfect summing up by taking the train route that Dickens’ body rode for his final trip to London for burial.

But much happens prior to that final ride. Throughout these travels, Fiennes provides insights into these earlier writers thoughts of their times, the places they visited—with quotes, and also gave biographical and historical information to better place them in their surroundings. I knew of several of the subjects, such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Samuel Johnson, Enid Blyton, James Boswell, and Beryl Bainbridge. But several of these I knew little beyond their name and one other fact. The total unknowns for me were Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes (a very distant relative of the author), Gerald of Wales, Edith Somervilfe, Violet ‘Martin’ Ross, and J.B. Priestly.

Each of these individuals has left a record or journal of travels around Britain. Celia Fiennes, 1662-1741, was known for having traveled through every English county in spite of the poor roads of the time. She didn’t travel to Scotland which was considered too uncivilized at that time. Her papers were apparently passed down in family.

Bainbridge actually recreates Priestly’s 1933 travels in 1983. And Fiennes recreates them again, sometimes finding the same hotel or pub still available. But Fiennes has added many other layers, with reports such as those from as early as the 12th century, from Gerald of Wales who wrote of journeys in Wales and his hopes to become bishop. So much here! It actually is difficult to know when to stop.

To return to the final trip into London, Fiennes writes of what the journey feels like.

He spent his life journeying to and from the city and he made his
characters do the same.... How big can London grow? There’s almost
nothing Dickens would recognize... Where is the squalor that Dickens
wrote about? It’s not here. Not the kind he knew... More tunnels. More
houses. There is no end or beginning or beginning to London. Just
streets and bridges and...playing fields... We ride into London and its
death-dealing air. In a great vista of new housing, stretching down to
the Thames and away to the south, it is only the old pubs and
churches, and sometimes the warehouses that survive... At Greenwich
station there is an upsurge of energy on the platform, of the kind
Dickens needed and fed upon... The streets start to narrow and
crowd. At last this is something that Dickens would recognize: tight
little lanes, pubs, dark buildings, black railway arches, a firestorm of
graffiti...and here we are, clanking into London Bridge and on for
Charing Cross... *

I do recommend this book for those who enjoy travel writing with historical and literary overlay, as well as more background on some British writers. Anglophiles should enjoy this. There is a brief biographical sketch of each subject provided at the end of the book. In addition there is an extensive bibliography of travel, literary and historical books also provided which I plan to return to.

*Note: as I am quoting from an advanced reader’s copy, it is possible that changes may have been made prior to publication.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Informative, interesting and entertaining, this travelogue by Peter Fiennes finds him travelling in the footsteps of writers through the ages who also travelled around Britain – from Enid Blyton to Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens to Beryl Bainbridge. As he recreates their journeys, he gives some biographical information about them and quotes from their own impressions of Britain. He explores how places have changed, and how, in some cases they have remained very much the same, and his observations and insights are both illuminating and often amusing. His own appreciation of the natural world comes over clearly, as does his admiration for those travellers who came before him. He waxes a bit too lyrical about Dickens towards the end of the book, but as this is very much a record of his own enthusiasm for exploring Britain through the eyes of these writers it didn’t impinge too much on the narrative. It’s really a book for just about anyone – for those who enjoy travel writing or social history or literature or nature or a combination of all of these and overall is a great read.

The author travels around Britain starting with Enid Blyton's possible locations for her stories, in the south of England. Moving through other authors, all historical and /or literary types, from a Welsh man of the twelfth and thirteenth century to Dickens and Somerville and Ross. He does look at the lie of the land, the kind of housing, how it appears today and would have looked to the authors. Fiennes shows himself capable of strong descriptive writing, so I'm disappointed that the book begins "It is April..." The reader will learn a great deal and may be inspired to tour.

Provided a reader is desperately keen to learn about the featured writers, they should enjoy the book. But I thought the author spent too long on some authors, especially Blyton, who has been been well covered by memoirs and film and doesn't seem to have been that pleasant. Instead of dwelling on her, why not fit in a visit to Miss Beatrix Potter? Why no visit to a Scots distillery in the company of Iain Banks? No pack pony ride across Bodmin Moor with Daphne duMaurier? I am sure we could all pick favourites, but Fiennes, entitled to his own choices, does seem to have narrowed the field too much for readers to be entirely pleased.

A map was promised to come, in my ARC; I also thought the book could do with some photos, but none are mentioned. Bibliography P323 - 330 and resources P330 -333.

In Footnotes, the author Peter Fiennes takes a literary trip around Britain as he follows in the footsteps of some of his favourite writers looking at how the cities and landscapes have changed over time. The writers are quite a disparate bunch writing in different time periods, including the 12-13th century (Gerald of Wales), 17th-18th century (Celia Fiennes, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson), 19th century (Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins) and 20th century (Enid Blyton, Beryl Bainbridge).

This is an interesting and original idea for a book marrying history with landscape and great writing. Fiennes writes passionately in defense of preserving Britain's woodlands and wildlife (I didn't know that in addition to red squirrels and wolves, beavers were also hunted to extinction 400 years ago in Britain and are now being reintroduced). While Fiennes is a talented writer himself, writing with humour and sharing many wonderful anecdotes, there are parts of the book that felt a bit rushed. The sections I enjoyed most were where he spent a little more time at the locations exploring the thoughts of each writer and perhaps the scope of the book could have been narrowed to cover fewer authors or to focus more in depth on a smaller region. My digital ARC did not include the maps that will be available in the published version of this book and these should be very useful for following Fiennes travels and adding to the experience.

This is such an unusual and quirky read and I loved it. I wasn't sure what to expect from the description but the content was really well written, with facts I had never heard before built into an interesting and amusing narrative. I would definitely recommend!

Peter Fiennes's <i>Footnotes</i> is subtitled 'A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers'. Given the title, I had been expecting the journey to be on foot, but in fact although there is some walking (including a walk up Snowdon in a fog, which exactly mirrors my experience when we climbed Snowdon some years ago) the writers in whose footsteps Fiennes is following use a variety of modes of transport, particularly horseback and train, while Fiennes's journey is mainly by car. He starts in Swanage, Enid Blyton's preferred holiday destination and the inspiration for the fantasy Devon of her books, all cream teas, smugglers' caves and lashings of ginger beer; he then moves on to Cornwall, where he follows Wilkie Collins and the surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun around the coast. The seventeenth-century diarist Celia Fiennes' journey takes him from Launceston to the Welsh borders; he then follows medieval cleric Gerald of Wales through South Wales and the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Anglo-Irish writers Edith Somerville and Violet 'Martin' Ross through North Wales. Returning to England, J.B. Priestley and Beryl Bainbridge take him to Birmingham, Bradford and Liverpool, and Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to the Lake District and Doncaster. He follows Boswell and Johnson around Scotland before returning to Priestley and Bainbridge who take him from Newcastle to Lincoln, and then, finally, he shares Dickens' final journey from his home in Gad's Hill to Westminster Abbey.

Fiennes's narrative merges together background information on the authors he has chosen to follow, many of them writers who are not particularly well-known, and key facts about their journeys, with his own observations as he follows in their footsteps, and, linking them, a meditation on the ways in which Britain has changed over the centuries; what has been lost, what has been gained, and the impossibility of ever really quantifying this. It's a interesting and thought-provoking book, and also a very enjoyable one, as Fiennes has a chatty, self-deprecating style which makes his narrative a pleasure to read. I very much appreciated that he managed to include equal numbers of women and men among the authors he follows (which can't have been that easy to do, given the male dominance of the travel genre) and now very much want to seek out the writing of some of the ones I hadn't previously encountered, in particualar Ithell Colquhoun, Celia Fiennes and Somerville and Ross.

(Because I had an e-ARC for review, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, I can't comment on the maps and illustrations, though a quick glance at the hardback in the gorgeous Highland Bookshop in Fort William suggests that it is also a beautifully presented book.)

In Footnotes, Peter Fiennes takes a tour of Britain, looking at it through the eyes of various authors and the times in which they lived. He considers how the country and its people have changed.

Footnotes is an absorbing read for a quiet afternoon. Fiennes is very good at conjuring up the atmosphere of place in any era. There are some excellent contemplations of Britain then and now through both historic authors’ eyes and documented experiences, as well as Fiennes observations. These take the form of both serious considerations, but also very witty commentary, with the author switching from one to the other with admirable fluidity. So be warned, Footnotes, is not the type of book to read in a genteel tea room lest a spray of cake crumbs erupts from failed attempts to stifle a guffaw as Fiennes’s wit takes hold.

Fiennes endeared himself to me, because he was just an ordinary guy launching himself into the great outdoors with little more than a block of mint cake and a limited ability to read a map, and not an epic adventurer who made me feel like a couch potato. Even back in civilisation he succumbs to the weakness of the flesh as, feeling a little worse for wear from the alcoholic bout of the night before, Fiennes feels compelled to grapple with the large quantity of chocolate related products thrust in his direction in the Cadbury’s factory tour.

His observations on the authors came over as balanced. Enid Blyton being a particular case in point (her reputation recently having been given a really good pummelling), as Fiennes explained her more redeeming features.

Footnotes was an enjoyable sojourn around Britain from the comfort of my armchair and one that I will quite happily undertake again when I feel the melancholy of the winter nights closing in.

A really intersting and rambling book where the author seeks to recreate the journies and walking "holidays" of literary writers around the country.. the first section dealing with Enid Blyton is partcularly enjoyable, meandering through her childhood, the facade she maintained whilst dealing with troubled marriages, her astonshig work output and drive to succeed all tenuously connected by Fiennes to her love of her annual holiday pilgrimage. Very amusing in parts. The next section became less coherent and focused and wasn't of the same qaulity but still rolled along nicely. I didn't read this book in one sitting, as I would do a novel but dipped in and out when I fancied something other than fiction. Fiennes is a cheerful companion to have along on the trip. A different choice for me but on e I relished. Enjoyable.

Oh who doesn’t love a literary guide or two? This one is particularly interesting as we follow the path of some of the greatest writers ever to have picked up a pen. There’s Charles Dickens, Enid Blyton and many more, but it’s the way the book presents them that’s the unique aspect of this reading journey. It’s a journal of the author taking you in the footsteps - almost literally - of the great and good. Not only that he shows you their world, their inspiration and their bookish landscapes all told with wit and warmth. IT also reads as a nature guide of sorts and this is what makes it stand out as the author must be a keen walker to notice some of the details he blends seamlessly into the main narrative. Never overloads or sounds as if you are on a geography field trip though! No! None of that.

This guide also looks at some of the more obscure authors and ones you might not immediately associate with a particular area. That’s a good way of engaging new readers, getting old books on the map and discovering new places through new eyes.

A treat for nature and literary fans alike

“Footnotes” brings together two things I love in a book—nature and travel writing and literary biography and criticism. Author Peter Fiennes comes up with the quirky idea of traveling around Britain following the paths various writers took over the years spanning Gerald de Barry’s’ journey through Wales on a Crusade recruiting trip in 1188 to Beryl Bainbridge’s 1980s recreation of J.B. Priestley’s trip around the north of England in the 1930s. Fiennes visits the southern coast on the trail of Enid Blyton; hikes through Cornwall with Wilkie Collins and Ithell Colquhoun; meets up with Wilkie again when he recreates Collins’ tour through the Lake District with Charles Dickens; trails Samuel Johnson and James Boswell through the Scottish Highlands; treads the paths taken by pioneering women travelers Celia Fiennes, Edith Somerville and Violet “Martin” Ross; and takes one final journey along the path that Dickens’ funeral train traveled from his home in Kent to his final resting place in Westminster Abbey. Along the way, Fiennes is a breezily pleasant guide—he has a wry sense of humor but is also capable of probing social commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed the time in his company.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Footnotes seamlessly combines autobiographical information, nature writing and follows the paths of some of the finest writers to have ever lived; this original and potent mix had me captivated for the entirety of the book. I mean, this amalgamation of two of my favourite topics: the natural world and the history of Britain through the eyes of writers such as Enid Blyton and Charles Dickens - what could be better? I very much enjoyed the fact that it was entertaining as Fiennes's writing is full of pep and pizazz and his observational skill is a joy to behold. If I'm honest I didn't have a clue whether this would work as a book or not but luckily the author knows exactly how to engage you and immerse you in the times and places he explores throughout.

I appreciated this so much that I was sad when I came to the end; I feel this could become a series as I'm sure a lot of people, including myself, would read the follow-ups and there are certainly plenty of other authors who could be featured. You can tell just how enthused Fiennes is about both nature and literature as this is a well-researched, beautifully written lit-travelogue. I enjoyed that quite a few of the authors were obscure as a lot of other books tend to cover the most famous, so this was refreshing. It is also a very accessible and eminently readable book I feel a lot of readers would delight in. A must-read for nature and lit connoisseurs. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

A charming journey through time and the British landscape as experienced by various historical persons of note. In Footnotes we follow the footsteps of nature lovers from the past and get a cheeky peak at their thoughts (from letters and published accounts) plus more intimate personal details that may not be so readily available. This book feels a bit like a biographical tell-all travelogue with a hardy dash of wit and sarcasm thrown in.

Mr. Fiennes braves all forms of weather and difficulty to see the places most dear to the characters he highlights here. Being American, I did not grow up with Enid Blyton but know of her and found the particulars of her private life (especially her marriages and the treatment of her girls) fascinating.

I adore Wilkie Collins and his portion of the book did not disappoint as it kept me in stitches. I revelled in the descriptions of traveling across the UK at a time when it wasn't as easy as popping on the train or taking the car cross country. Back when nature was a lot less tamed and fewer people ran around, it must have been glorious. I feel inspired to visit more than a few locations mentioned on these pages. Thank you, Peter Fiennes, for sharing these insights of a bygone age and the mighty characters who appreciated them before us.