Eleanor by Alice Loxton

How about some more walk books? When I was eight or nine, I remember being enthralled reading about the journeys of Marco Polo. Much later, I reveled in Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.  That one even had a movie starring Robert Redford made about it. And then, there was the pride and lost shoe leather that goes with putting together the two editions of my own book--London Theatre Walks. It should not be surprising then that my eyes perked up when this title appeared on the new publication shelf at the Marion library.

Eleanor, by British writer Alice Loxton, is subtitled “A 200 mile walk in search of England’s Lost Queen.” In 1290, when Eleanor of Castile not Aquitaine, the wife of England’s King Edward I died, her embalmed body was carried from Lincoln to London before its burial in Westminster Abbey. At each of the twelve overnight stopping places on the route, her devoted husband decreed that a stone cross be built to commemorate the journey. Few of these so-called “Eleanor Crosses” have survived, but Loxton put on a stout pair of boots and decided to make an on-foot pilgrimage along the entire cortege route. Her impressions of the towns she passed through, their ancient and current history, the people who accompanied her or met on the way, and the English weather she faced because it was December in the midlands, make for a sort of modern Canterbury Tales. There is trial and tribulation, flooding and sunshine, humor, and above all, a fine historical portrait of an almost forgotten Queen. You can even enjoy this book if you aren’t a history buff, because it is filled with some lovely fellow hikers and quirky citizens of the mainly small towns along the way. One little nugget I remember was about the two rival inns in a tiny town called Stony Stratford (a place where a bridge of stones forded the river Strat). It had two rival inns across from each other on the high street. One was called the Cock and the other the Bull.  Both were hotspots for local gossip and each became famous for their, sometimes wild, embellishments of the stories. Thus, we have the true origin of “a cock and bull story.” Can’t leave without noting that the photo reproduction is pretty shabby, but the book is blister-free.

I give it a four out of 5.