Doubling Back is a fascinating and moving account of walking in the footsteps of others, by Linda Cracknell. In 1952 Linda Cracknell’s father embarked on a hike through the Swiss Alps. Fifty years later Linda retraces that fateful journey, following the trail of the man she barely knew. This collection of walking tales takes its theme from that pilgrimage.
The walks trace the contours of history, following writers, relations and retreading ways across mountains, valleys and coasts formerly trodden by drovers, saints and adventurers. Each walk is about the reaffirming of memories, beliefs and emotions, and especially of the connection that one can have with the past through particular places. This book celebrates life, family, friendship and walking through landscapes richly textured with stories.
Doubling Back is a masterwork of travel writing in the vein of Robert Macfarlane and Roger Deakin, lyrical, poignant, and with stunning descriptions of the landscapes Linda Cracknell leads us through.
‘Cracknell wonderfully explores the strange durability of the paths that we make in our lives, in our dreams and after our deaths.‘ – Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways
‘There is not a step taken in this book that does not engage… To walk with Linda Cracknell is to explore landscape and memory… It is to be enriched by the compulsions of a lifetime.‘ – Tom Pow
‘…a winning combination of memoir, travelogue and literary meditation‘ – Daily Mail
‘With Cracknell’s writing you don’t so much see the landscape as feel it.‘ – Scotland on Sunday
‘Of all the current crop of excellent “new Nature Writers” Linda Cracknell is probably the most physically present to the reader… Refreshing, lovely, fun: good walking and good writing.‘ – Sara Maitland
£8.99 in the UK. Linda Cracknell was a guest at a Walking Writers Salon in May 2023 – log in to watch a video recording from here.
