Overview
Unpromisingly - for a walking book - Desire Paths begins on a hospital gurney as the author prepares for open heart surgery. Thereafter, it dances back and forth in place and time between an array of obscurely connected walks that Roy has undertaken over the years. Among the book's many characters and diversions are Wetherspoons, Capt. Picard, the Navy Cut sailor, the buried 'Spirit of Brighton', Wendy Craig, Harrods, Buddhism's Six Realms of Desire, 'Things to Do...' tourist brochures, Argleton redux, the abyss, strip-lynchets, punk residues, Milton Keynes, multiple identities and an inkling of what the future may hold for thoughtful walkers.Each chapter starts with a quote from Phil Smith's Mythogeography, specifically from the 'Legend' given in that book - 'legend' as in a set of definitions of symbols used on maps to define landscape features. Roy uses these symbols to organise the book. The main body of each chapter is an account of a walking journey he has done. These are not chronological: structuring the book around the mythogeography Legend has (dis)organised the walks into a sequence that wanders in and out of time. Towards the end of each chapter, Roy reflects on a Landscape Feature that corresponds to the Legend - exploring the workability (or playability) of mythogeographical concepts and illustrating how they have manifested in his own walking. Finally, the Jump Over the Back Fence notes in each chapter suggest further actual walks which readers could make.
Full Product Details
Author: Roy Bayfield
Publisher: Triarchy Press
Imprint: Triarchy Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.10cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.204kg
ISBN: 9781911193043
ISBN 10: 191119304
Pages: 142
Publication Date: 15 November 2016
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
'Roy Bayfield rises from the dead and re-discovers walking as a way of life. Desire Paths is another fine mythogeographical grimoire.' Gareth E. Rees. Author: Marshland
Author Information
Roy Bayfield has appeared in a list of exemplary ambulatory explorers , is well known for his explorations of the notorious Argleton (a Google Maps un-town), and is one of the small group of contemporary walker-writers who are stepping out beyond the work of WG Sebald, Will Self and Iain Sinclair.His previous publications include a story in the seminal anthology Britpulp!, a chapter in the defining work on the new psychogeography, Tina Richardson's Walking Inside Out, and a poetry collection, Bypass Pilgrim.
