Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu
The Old Ways Cover Play Sample

Sample may contain unsuitable content.

Stream / Download

Audiobook streaming provided by:

OverDrive Logo

Share this book:

The Old Ways

AuthorRobert Macfarlane

NarratorRoy McMillan

Duration10h 44m

CategoriesAdult Non-Fiction, Travel

PublisherPenguin Books Ltd

VersionUnabridged

  Save to Wish List
  Add to Favourites List

In The Old Ways Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast network of routes criss-crossing the British landscape and its waters, and connecting them to the continents beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, of pilgrimage and ritual, and of songlines and their singers. Above all this is a book about people and place: about walking as a reconnoitre inwards, and the subtle ways in which we are shaped by the landscapes through which we move.
Told in Macfarlane's distinctive and celebrated voice, the book folds together natural history, cartography, geology, archaeology and literature. His tracks take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird-islands of the Scottish northwest, and from the disputed territories of Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. Along the way he walks stride for stride with a 5000-year-old man near Liverpool, follows the 'deadliest path in Britain', sails an open boat out into the Atlantic at night, and crosses paths with walkers of many kinds - wanderers, wayfarers, pilgrims, guides, shamans, poets, trespassers and devouts.
He discovers that paths offer not just means of traversing space, but also of feeling, knowing and thinking. The old ways lead us unexpectedly to the new, and the voyage out is always a voyage inwards.

0 (0 Reviews)
0
0
0
0
0

Related Titles

The Salt Path Cover

The Salt Path

Author: Raynor Winn

The Salt Path

Author Raynor Winn

Narrator Anne Reid

Duration 11h 1m

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, read by Anne Reid. Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill, the couple lose their home and their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South Wes...

View Book
Walking Home Cover

Walking Home

Author: Simon Armitage

Walking Home

Author Simon Armitage

Narrator Simon Armitage

Duration 8h 45m

One summer, Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way - a challenging 256-mile route usually approached from south to north, with the sun, wind and rain at your back. However, he resolved to tackle it back to front, walking home towards the Yorkshire village where he was born, travelling as a 'modern troubadour', without a penny in his pockets...

View Book
The Lost Spells Cover

The Lost Spells

Author: Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris

The Lost Spells

Author Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris

Narrator Various

Duration 40m

As the nights get darker and colder, curl up with voices of hope and renewal - feel the natural world come back to life around you . . .The Lost Spells is an audio treasure, a new collection of 'spells' - acrostic poetry and artwork - by writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris. For those who loved The Lost Words -...

View Book
Knitlandia Cover

Knitlandia

Author: Clara Parkes

Knitlandia

Author Clara Parkes

Narrator Clara Parkes

Duration 6h 40m

Knitting aficionado and notable artisan Clara Parkes delves into her storied travels with this inspiring and witty New York Times bestselling memoir on a creative life enriched by her adventures around the world. Building on the success of The Yarn Whisperer, Parkes's rich personal essays invite listeners and devoted crafters on excursions to be sa...

View Book
Landmarks Cover

Landmarks

Author: Robert Macfarlane

Landmarks

Author Robert Macfarlane

Narrator Roy McMillan

Duration 8h 50m

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane, read by Roy McMillan SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE From the bestselling author of UNDERLAND, THE OLD WAYS and THE LOST WORDS 'Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and...

View Book
Step By Step Cover

Step By Step

Author: Simon Reeve

Step By Step

Author Simon Reeve

Narrator Simon Reeve

Duration 10h 29m

TV documentary maker Simon Reeve has dodged bullets on frontlines, hunted with the Bushmen of the Kalahari, dived with manta rays, seals and sharks, survived malaria, walked through minefields, tracked lions on foot, been taught to fish by the President of Moldova, and detained for spying by the KGB. After a decade spent making more than 80 program...

View Book
Underland Cover

Underland

Author: Robert Macfarlane

Underland

Author Robert Macfarlane

Narrator Roy Mcmillan

Duration 13h 9m

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Underland by Robert Macfarlane. A Guardian Best Book of the 21st Century The highly anticipated new book from the internationally bestselling, prize-winning author of Landmarks, The Lost Words and The Old Ways Discover the hidden worlds beneath our feet... In Underland, Robert Macfarlane takes us on a journ...

View Book
Fatal North Cover

Fatal North

Author: Bruce Henderson

Fatal North

Author Bruce Henderson

Narrator John Pruden

Duration 9h 9m

Bruce Henderson brings to life one of the most mysterious tragedies of American exploration in Fatal North.

View Book
Erebus - the Story of A Ship Cover

Erebus - the Story of A Ship

Author: Michael Palin

Erebus - the Story of A Ship

Author Michael Palin

Narrator Michael Palin

Duration 11h 5m

In September 2014 the wreck of a sailing vessel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. It was broken at the stern and covered in a woolly coat of underwater vegetation. Its whereabouts had been a mystery for over a century and a half. Its name was HMS Erebus. Now Michael Palin - former Monty Python stal...

View Book
North Korea Journal Cover

North Korea Journal

Author: Michael Palin

North Korea Journal

Author Michael Palin

Narrator Michael Palin

Duration 2h 54m

In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal, where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxuri...

View Book