Alastair Humphreys

If you are looking for a travel guide to northern Spain, this isn't the book for you. This is a personal account of a walk in Laurie Lee's footsteps and, if you have read that and enjoyed it, then this might be a book for you. It is a book about adventure and a consideration of what that means. It is a book about a man who is approaching 40 years of age and who is reluctant about giving up travel and adventure and needs to understand where his priorities lie. It is also a story about bad violin playing. It is often funny and often thoughtful and never boring. It made me want to set off walking and to return to Spain.… (meer)

I tend to listen to a lot of podcasts while I am at work and one podcast had an interview with Alastair Humphreys about his latest book, Microadventures. Humphreys sets out to show that you don't have to climb Everest or cross the Sahara to have an adventure. He argues that we all could do with a little more adventure in our lives and we don't need lots of money or time to do this. In fact, he says that adventure is just outside our front doors.

This book is pretty well written with Humphreys detailing a number of microadventure that he and others have had. At the end of each chapter he suggests other adventures of a similar type that we could partake in. The adventures cover a wide variety but with most of them involving spending a night under the stars. This is where I hit the reason why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 stars. Wild camping is a contentious issue in England with it being technically illegal and Humphreys skirts around this issue. He also tends to focus on a lot of his adventures starting in London. Train links out of London are very varied and those living in other areas of the country may run into an issue there.

There are some chapters dedicated to explaining how to camp without leaving a trace and what equipment you will need. The equipment list is kept quite small on purpose and would best suit adventures in the summer.

The book is crammed full of ideas and makes a quick and interesting read.… (meer)