A lighthearted guide to the geography of Britain from "Daily Telegraph" journalist and bestselling author of "Coast," Christopher SomervilleBognor Regis, Aberystwyth, Glasgowcan you place them on a map? Most people can't these days. What kind of countrysidewould you pass through on your way to the Cairngorms, or the Fens, or Northumberland? What's north of the Pennines? And what's it like when you get there? Most folk wouldn't have a clue. Increasing numbers of us don't have a basic geographical notion of these British islands. Blame it on a decline in formal geography teaching, orGPS and...

For Somerville this was a kind of pilgrimage, a journey unlike any he had undertaken in 20 years of travel-writing. It was an expedition where he traded the usual comforts and certainties for a real physical and mental challenge, with no mobile phone or other technological aids. The only plan for his journey was to begin in the East at Easter and finish at Whitsun in the extreme West, at the Monastery of the Golden Step, whose gold step, legend says, can only be seen by those who have purged themselves into purity. During his 300-mile walk, he tackled four mountain ranges, high slopes and the...