LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2025 AND A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
‘A dazzlingly inventive work of literature’ Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways
'A wonderful, epic braiding of history, geography and personal memoir' James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral
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At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.
In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.
Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain’s great highway.
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'This is an astonishing book in its scope and vitality. It’s one to relish and revisit.' The Telegraph
'A remarkable, post-Covid, post-Brexit state of the nation literary archaeology.' Financial Times
'Stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one' Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole
'A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip' Melissa Harrison, author of All Among The Barley
'Thought-provoking and beautiful' Matt Gaw, author of Under The Stars
'A beautifully woven and mesmerising book' Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen
'Sweeping, sensitive and enduring' Tristan Gooley, author of How To Read A Tree
"A beautifully written study of our longest numbered route, the A1, is full of rich asides and haunting explorations, conjuring the visual pleasure of a road movie." - GUARDIAN
"Richly historical . . . The North Road is a wonderful achievement . . . Cowen has perhaps found his country's elusive sense of identity. It resides not in landscape or football or a National Trust garden, but in an ever-changing, ever-active, thundering dual carriageway. It begins in uncertainty and ends in a different nation. Brilliantly, The North Road is everything. It is “England and nowhere”." - NEW STATESMAN