Doubling Back: Paths Trodden in Memor

Past and present converge as Linda Cracknell doubles back to walk in the footsteps of others.

Across Norway, Kenya, and the northerly islands of Skye in Scotland and Lindisfarne in England, Doubling Back traces the contours of history. Following paths long mythologized by writers and relatives gone before, Linda Cracknell charts how places immortalized in writing and memory create portals; wrinkles in time and geography that allow us to recreate journeys of others moving at a slow and steady pace, on foot.

Join Linda as she traverses the dangerous crevasses of the Swiss Alps to retrace the mountaineering past of the father she barely knew. Walk with her as she follows the escape route of a Norwegian scientist on the run in the Second World War, or as she simply celebrates the joy found in the ’friendly paths’ of her local, regular terrain, and the rhythms and ritual of returning home.

Published in the UK to rave reviews and serialized on BBC radio, this beautifully rendered account of walking and memory helps us to locate ourselves in time and space and to reflect on our future on this fragile Earth.

Linda Cracknell is a writer of narrative nonfiction on the natural world, as well as of fiction and radio scripts, and the author of Writing Landscape (Saraband, 2023). Landscape, place, nature, and memory are key themes in her work. Her first story collection was nominated for Scotland’s National Book Awards and the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing. She teaches nature and place writing as well as creative fiction writing, often through the medium of outdoor or residential workshops and courses.