- Time of past OR future Camino
- CdS 2012, CdN 2013, Shikoku 2015, CP 2016.
Mary Colwell’s new book The Gathering Place: A Winter Pilgrimage Through Changing Times. Why did it make the 2024 shortlist of the best travel books?
Several of the books on the shortlist are centred around walks or hikes, including The Gathering Place, which traces Mary Colwell’s 500-mile solo pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. The author notes that this pilgrimage in particular, and pilgrimages in general, have always drawn people during times of strife and upheaval. Fittingly, she walked the Camino during the autumn/winter of 2020, still at the height of the pandemic.
I’ve read travel books written about the same period that either ignore or underplay the pandemic. In The Gathering Place, it’s present throughout and Colwell does a great job of finding parallels with plagues and epidemics from the past. This adds a rich texture to her journey, as she delves into the history, stories and characters associated with the Camino. She also blends in diary entries from her previous travels, while painting perceptive portraits of her fellow pilgrims.
She has a poetic touch and her enthusiasm for the subject really shines through.
I’ve noticed a trend in hiking memoirs in recent years. But I suppose journeys on foot have always served as a useful narrative thread for travel writing.
Absolutely. Classically, in a travelogue, a walk from point A to point B gives you a clear journey and structure to base the book around. The idea of pilgrimage—both religious and secular—seems to be a popular theme in travel writing right now. There are quite a few other books coming out on the subject over the coming months, such as On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britainby Oliver Smith and Wayfarer: Love, Loss and Life on Britain’s Ancient Paths by Phoebe Smith. So The Gathering Place feels like a timely book in that sense, too.
Several of the books on the shortlist are centred around walks or hikes, including The Gathering Place, which traces Mary Colwell’s 500-mile solo pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. The author notes that this pilgrimage in particular, and pilgrimages in general, have always drawn people during times of strife and upheaval. Fittingly, she walked the Camino during the autumn/winter of 2020, still at the height of the pandemic.
I’ve read travel books written about the same period that either ignore or underplay the pandemic. In The Gathering Place, it’s present throughout and Colwell does a great job of finding parallels with plagues and epidemics from the past. This adds a rich texture to her journey, as she delves into the history, stories and characters associated with the Camino. She also blends in diary entries from her previous travels, while painting perceptive portraits of her fellow pilgrims.
She has a poetic touch and her enthusiasm for the subject really shines through.
I’ve noticed a trend in hiking memoirs in recent years. But I suppose journeys on foot have always served as a useful narrative thread for travel writing.
Absolutely. Classically, in a travelogue, a walk from point A to point B gives you a clear journey and structure to base the book around. The idea of pilgrimage—both religious and secular—seems to be a popular theme in travel writing right now. There are quite a few other books coming out on the subject over the coming months, such as On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britainby Oliver Smith and Wayfarer: Love, Loss and Life on Britain’s Ancient Paths by Phoebe Smith. So The Gathering Place feels like a timely book in that sense, too.
