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A British obsession?

12 Feb, 2023

Over the years, musicians have worked out that walking can be inspirational. Beethoven, Mahler and Britten all used walking for inspiration; Tchaikovsky took a daily two hour walk after lunch, however, he would also take a brisk stroll each morning too, and was most put out if he hadn't gone for a walk. French composer, Erik Sartie walked six miles every day to work and back, and musical experts say you can hear his paces in his compositions.

We learnt this and so much more from a BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast before most were awake, but we cheated and listened to it on BBC Sounds. We were awake this morning however, to listen to Will Self's Point of View, that explored the Derive, as he invited us to get lost on foot.

Both these programmes got us thinking more about walking and why it continues to be so popular among Britons. The UK boasts more walking artists than any other country, more sound walk composers, more walking festivals, more charity walks, and we have a national charity with hundreds of thousands of ramblers, and campaigning groups vying for the media spotlight and the national and local government ears. There's a project to create a national walking network, linking up thousands of miles of 'rights of way', called "Slow Ways UK", and a campaign to expand the area of land on which one is allowed to roam, wild camp or swim in rivers and lakes.

This year, the South West Coast Path, Britain's most famous and most walked national trail celebrates its 50th anniversary - the UK's poet laureate Simon Armitage has written about it; Raynor Winn's 'Salt Path' was a national bestseller for more than 18 months; and our favourite book about it, is Mark Wallington's "500 mile walkies" - we would love to know, what is your favourite book or walking art intervention on the South West Coast Path?

For now, keep walking!

Co-founder of walk · listen · create

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“One Hundred Days of Walking” is a visualization of walking as listening, with 100 accordion books filled with watercolor landscapes, strung on 100 feet of braided cotton, hanging in space above the river that often guided my walking. Keep reading
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Upcoming events

2023-02-15 20:00 · Online
How can we use art to inspire words? Ekphrasis translates as ‘description’ in Greek and, today, an ekphrasis is used to mean a literary description of art. In effec... Keep reading

From our network

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Stuff we found

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areobate

From translations of the Greek playwright Aristophanes: It literally means to walk on the air, but actually means to walk as if on air. What a perfect word for buoyant sauntering, after, say, receiving good news. Credits to Mark Peters.

Added by Geert Vermeire

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