Had they known me, they would have realised that ‘I wouldn’t try to go that way if I were you – it’s difficult’ is one of the three main motivational hiking phrases a person can say in my vicinity, along with ‘There’s a great pub at the apex of this route’ and ‘This hill is well known due to the coven which is said to have practised in the copse at its plateau during the middle of the seventeenth century.’ [loc. 151]
What I like most about Tom Cox's writing -- here, online, in Villager -- is the immensity of his enthusiasm for and curiosity about things. So many things: cats (obviously), music, otters, wood, woodlands, winter, scarecrows, pigs preparing for apocalypse, bat detectors, the sea, the sea ...
21st Century Yokel is a bit of a patchwork of anecdotes, rambling in more than one sense: there isn't a plot, except inasmuch as it's about going for long walks and getting your head together. There are hints of bad stuff in the past (divorce, quitting mainstream job) but it's mostly about the rabbitholes that his interests open up, and the ways in which the landscape affects him, and about his family (especially his dad, whose monologues are rendered in ALL CAPITALS, which can become slightly wearing). 21st Century Yokel made me, too, want to go for long walks and experience the eerieness of twilight on a deserted lane, or face down the sea to settle my mind.
This was self-published via Unbound, and it was good to see more than one friend's name in the list of sponsors.
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