She admits this herself and considers herself lucky, despite the constant negativity and self doubt (of which there was a lot).

The story of course is a bit repetitive but her sharing of her ups and downs, good and bad days, the encounters with wonderful people, scary cows, bog and mud and Scottish heatwaves is told in a light and funny and engaging manner. Elise tells her story with such good-humoured light-heartedness that you could be forgiven for forgetting that what she is describing is a feat of real endurance. Downing also seems to enjoy spending time in cafes, and sampling the fares along her journey, not that I blame her really – why not experience what’s around you, and let’s face it there has to some reward for putting yourself through the ringer on a daily basis.Just goes to show that there's a ram-spinning, swashbuckling adventure right there on your doorstep. Someone said, "Life is too short to read a bad book," and while this isn't necessarily a bad book, it's not, imo, a good book. Elise’s achievement of being the first person to run the coast of the UK (~5,000 miles) is staggering, and a testament to the fact you do not need to be an elite athlete to do some pretty cool things. I didn’t think this was quite as good as Old Glory, but I don’t think it is as easy for an author to understand their home country as sometimes it is for an outsider to do.

Anna McNuff, author and adventurer'Elise's irresistibly readable adventures are both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.With wry humour and acid incisiveness he includes personal snippets here and there – like his first (unsuccessful) sexual encounter as an awkward teenager, which is hilarious. I was therefore a bit disappointed that she actually relied very heavily on staying at people’s houses night after night and didn’t actually pitch her first tent up until well over 6months in. Her book about the trip is out now; Coasting (publishers Summersdale) “Coasting is about putting one foot in front of the other, even when it feels impossible, and trying to enjoy it too. I really felt like I got to know Elise and worryingly, she is so inspirational, I've signed up for a marathon! It makes you feel like anything is possible, even for those of us just starting out on our long distance running journey.

It wasn't a debate, it was a verbal bloodletting, with words standing for the guns and bayonets that would come later when the fleet reached the islands. I suppose I expected a bit more, maybe a bit more about her inner journey and the nature and the views. Raban also meets up with some interesting characters on his travels, including Paul Theroux and Phillip Larkin. Coasting is less of a travelogue than The Kingdom by the Sea, and is content to bob along on the current and go wherever fancy leads, and there’s a strong element of personal journey involved as well, but as a perceptive view of a period of great change it’s an essential record. One can read Coasting for his precise naturalistic descriptions or his mordant comments on the new England, where the principal industry seems to be the marketing of Englishness.Almost makes me want to take up running again and it definitely has me wanting to find my own adventure! Or take this wonderful description of waiting out a gale at anchor: “The boat thrummed and shivered on its moorings.

The tale he tells is of its time and place yet offers wider understanding of the psyche of the British.This was a lovely travel account of Raban’s 1982 journey around the coast of England in a boat, “coasting” from unknown town to remembered city. Set in the 1980s when I was a kid it transported me back to an age when the Sun ruled and Thatcher was at the peak of her powers. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Vassos Alexander, presenter, author and runner'A beautifully observed and blisteringly truthful account of what happens when you decide to combine adventure and endurance. At the start he decribes being galvanised by earlier sailing books written by authors with "philistine certainties .