Book of the Month June 2024

On This Holy Island

This month as we approach the Solstice we are heading on a pilgrimage. Taking in ancient and perhaps more familiar pilgrimage routes such as Lindisfarne and Iona as well as more modern, secular and unusual but equally powerful and moving destinations. The power of community, the transformational nature of a solo trek, the friends we meet and make and the new perspectives we gain all come to life again and again in this beautifully written book.

“Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith sets out to radically reframe our idea of 'pilgrimage' in Britain by retracing sacred travel made across time, from murmurs of ritual journeys in the depths of Ice Age to new pilgrimages of the 21st century.

The overriding message is that every pilgrimage is unique and what is required is an open mind... as he puts it, "to break through the crust of the familiar to find the fantastical". - Caroline Eden, Financial Times

He embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes - climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage.

The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless truth: that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, "the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul."