Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future

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We recently joined a coachload of local people travelling up to London for the XR Gathering. It was peaceful, organised, with upwards of 60,000 very nice people attending of all ages, hardly terrorists. A rapturous lamentation, and a winding tale with an unswerving message. One of the best books I've read on the climate emergency -- Chloe Aridjis

Part love-letter, part lament, part call-to-action, Sarn Helen is one man's passionate attempt - in prose that's at once lyrical and forensic - to put into words what's at stake for us all in our present moment -- Carys Davies Sarn Helen is accomplished and stunning in every one of its many personalities: as history, as memoir, as eco-parable, as impassioned call to arms” Thrilling. I was bewitched by the experience of seeing as Tom Bullough does, with such insight, such deep learning, such humour and such urgency. This is the finest kind of travel writing: a book that makes you see what is really there, and fills you with the author's passion to defend it -- Horatio Clare So wrote poet Edward Thomas of Sarn Helen, one of Wales’ ancient ways. The Romans invaded Wales in 43 AD, and built a network of roads connecting their camps and forts across the country. Some are now busy dual carriageways, such as the A5 – all remnants of its history squished beneath layers of tarmac. But others, such as Sarn Helen, still lie peaceful and half-hidden in the Welsh landscape, their 2,000-year-old stones accessible on foot or by mountain bike.We are already witnessing the effects of climate change, not just in Wales but all over the world. 2020 saw the warmest winter and wettest February. There were floods, droughts, landslides. Remember last summer’s record temperatures topping 40 degrees?

Sarn Helen is a beautifully downbeat travelogue that's full of love, rage and humour. A brilliant, pivotal book by one of the most engaged and engaging writers around, it will change you -- Toby Litt Morris’s illustrations inhabit movement and life – a puffin in torpedo dive, an inquisitive otter, a sand lizard, feet splayed and tail hooked. But as alive as they appear, these are just several of the 666 species ‘threatened with imminent national extinction’. The very thought is heartbreaking.Sarn Helen" is the title of a song by Welsh band Super Furry Animals, appearing on their Welsh language album Mwng. It is also the title of a 1997 sequence of poems by English poet John Wilkinson and a 2023 travel book by Tom Bullough, who walked the route in 2020. A rapturous lamentation, and a winding tale with an unswerving message. One of the best books I’ve read on the climate emergency” We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. A wondrous and arresting journey teeming with wisdom, insights and humanity. Walking through Wales with Bullough is to see the nation – and the UK – with new eyes” Sarn Helen: A Journey through Wales, Past, Present and Future by Tom Bullough is published by Granta. It is available from all good bookshops.

Bullough has produced an urgent logical and lyrical call for climate action, using his deep knowledge of Wales, past and present, as a catalyst. This is a stunning book”A Roman road once connecting the north and south coasts of Wales, Sarn Helen is a ‘perfect spine from which to flesh out a picture of the country’. Despite no trace of it on the OS map, Bullough manages to walk the entirety and, in doing so, is able to juxtapose the past, present and future of Wales. South of Dolgellau the route passes over Waen Llefenni into Cwm yr Hengae to Aberllefenni. Part of the narrow-gauge Corris Railway between Aberllefenni and Maespoeth Junction may run along the line of the Sarn. [2] A minor road running along the east bank of the Afon Dulas near Esgairgeiliog, Powys might be Roman in origin. [3] Although potentially the Roman road remained on the west bank of the Dulas between Corris and Ffridd Gate. [4]