Name: Pennine Way: In the time of Covid
Price: 39.41 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Stephen Platt
ISBN: 9781912460489

portada Pennine Way: In the time of Covid

Type

Physical Book

Author

Stephen Platt

Publisher

Leveret Publishing

Language

English

Pages

108

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 0.7 cm

Weight

0.21 kg.

ISBN13

9781912460489

Synopsis "Pennine Way: In the time of Covid"

The Pennine Way is a tough old walk. It's about 270 miles long (435 km), was the first National trail in England and is one of the most famous long-distance walks. I did it a couple of weeks before I should have, during the Covid pandemic of 2020 when the guidelines encouraged outdoor exercise but advised against overnight stays away from home. There was no accommodation or catering en-route and few shops open. I arranged two poste-restante food drops at post offices in Alston and Hawes at approximately one-third and two-thirds of the way. That meant I had to wild camp and carry food for a week. Lockdown during the Covid pandemic was a great time to do the Pennine Way. No one else was on the walk. In fact hardly anyone had done it for months and nature had reclaimed the way and at times the path was almost indistinct. The guidelines that everyone should stay at home meant that the villages and settlements I passed through were deserted. It was like a sci-fi movie when everyone has disappeared. When I got back people asked me, what was the best bit. The problem is that so much happens in the 17 days of a walk like this, so much that is singular and arresting. But with the repetition of walking each day over similar ground it becomes difficult for the mind to encompass and remember. Alfred Wainright, who devised the walk in 1938, said he wrote his 'pictorial companion' for himself, so he could relive the walk back in the comfort of home. In part that's what motivated me. But I also needed to make sense of what I'd done, to map it out, and to fit the parts together as a whole.

Stephen Platt

(Author)

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Stephen R. Platt is an American historian specialized in the history of modern China, with a particular focus on the 19th century and the foreign relations of the Qing dynasty. He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and earned his PhD in Chinese history from Yale University in 2004. His research focuses on the conflicts and transformations that marked the decline of the Chinese Empire and its interaction with Western powers.

Among his most notable works is Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (2012), which received the Cundill History Prize. In 2018, he published Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (2024), where he analyzes the events that led to the First Opium War. This book was a finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

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