"Britannia Obscura" by Joanne Parker

This book aims to 'map' hidden Britain in five categories: caves, megalithic monuments, canals, ley lines, and air routes. It's very eclectic and its approach to each chapter is very anecdotal but it works as a sort of charming whimsy.

Selected quotes:

• “There is a different map of Britain for every person who has ever lived in the country ... representations of lives lived - with beloved homes at their centres, elongated stretches of land where travel had been slow or difficult, and vast empty spaces where imagination faltered or trips ended.” (Introduction)
• “Maps often lie at the heart of group identities and loyalties.” (Introduction)
• “Helvellyn ... broke off from the West Highlands, floated down the west coast of Britain, and eventually crashed into Cumbria.” (Introduction)
• “It's not to everyone's taste. but it's remote, wild and challenging, with some incredible views and rewards ... somewhere where you can challenge your endurance, experience isolation, and feel what it's really like to be ten hours of hard exercise from the nearest phone reception.” (Ch 1)
• “Stone circles are, for many, portals into an alternative reality. ‘They create gateways ... they can be seen just as a church can be seen - as a doorway to the other’.” (Ch 2)
• “In the mid-nineteenth century, when bad traffic was at its height, the city [Birmingham] was veined like a Stilton with 160 miles of canal, and even today, with just two-thirds of those waterways still navigable, Birmingham has more canals than Venice.” (Ch 3)
• “Some ley hunters will tell you ... that the ley system is a means of transmitting thoughts - a ‘telepathic telephone service’.” (Ch 4)
• “Leys may be compared to the hidden knowledge of a secret tradition. Freely available to those in the know. Totally invisible to those who aren’t.” (Ch 4)
• “Some of your oldest friends will assume that somewhere down the ley line you have lost your marbles.” (Ch 4)
• “The majority of the energy lines on the dowser’s map of Britain are neither straight nor static. Some wind like snakes. Others vibrate to and fro like guitar strings.” (Ch 4)
• “One of those splendid Scottish mornings when the clear sky looks as if it has been freshly scoured.” (Ch 5)

May 2022; 157 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God