The Green Road into the Trees

Here in our Roman holiday villa near Dirleton I am reading a v enjoyable new book by Hugh Thomson 'The Green Road into the Trees'. I recommend it unreservedly because it is well-written, full of personal observations and opinions (not all that I agree with, but that doesn't matter, in fact it makes it all the more interesting), a 'state of England' book. The author decides immediately on his return from another journey to walk from Abbotsbury in Dorset along the Icknield way, an ancient track leading northeast to the Norfolk coast. Along the way he meets new people, dances with hippies, stays with old friends and remembers dead ones, reminisces about his own life and the history of the land he is walking through. This is a book with an informed point of view;  it is a love letter worth all the more because its author has travelled widely and has perspective. A vignette towards the end encapsulates the tone: Thomson sips some coca tea (that's coca not cocoa) musing on the astonishing Bronze Age finds being made at Flag Fen, on the beauty of England and the robust kindness of its people, its pubs and hidden corners . Come to Scotland Hugh and do the same for us.