This is the second of Hamish Brown's classic trio of outdoor books, with a new introduction, appendices and two sections of color pictures taken during the marathon venture. First published thirty years ago, this wonderful period piece tells the story of what happened after Hamish's Mountain Walk when Hamish took to the outdoors and writing full time. With his faithful companion, the Shetland collie Storm, he wandered from John O'Groats to Land's End over 175 days in 1979, taking the first ever walk between the highest summits of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland besides completing a sixth round of the Munros, canoe-running the River Forth, and traversing many of the best hills in the four countries. This book has been carefully revised but remains the same vivid journal of a journey, with day-to-day snapshots of people and places, of history and legend, to which is now added an historical perspective, a picture of these islands in 1979, before mobile phones or the internet. Notes on various sections which attract records', like the Pennine Way, or John O'Groats to Lands End, have been updated, but Hamish's story stands alone with an inimitable mix of his experience, erudition and enthusiasm.
