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From coastal castles to the steep pitches of Snowdonia National Park, mountain passes to the UK’s first trail centre at Coed-y-Brenin, traversing the ‘desert of Wales’ through the Cambrian Mountains and spectacular Elan Valley and lastly crossing the rough and wild Brecon Beacons National Park into the valleys of South Wales, there are few long-distance routes that rival the variety of landscapes that you’ll find on Sarn Helen.
These conversations are written as though the reader is present. Bullough has already used specificity to build our relationship and so we trust the experts too. It is scary and painful to read, but fuels the need to act. As Dr Claire Earlie says, ‘This is our home, and so it’s important to us’. Sarn Helen is accomplished and stunning in every one of its many personalities: as history, as memoir, as eco-parable, as impassioned call to arms. The world of this book is one of awe and joy and one which we need to protect from human predation until our last collective breath -- Niall Griffiths
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It is of interest to me, not only as a Welsh learner who is keen to learn more of Welsh culture, history and landscape, nor as a lover of Roman roads and good writing, but also as a grandmother who is keenly aware of the climate breakdown and what it will mean for our beloved small granddaughters. Our history has never been a simple strand, and so threads of Celts and Romans are interwoven with Anglo-Saxons and Normans, Taliesin and the Mabinogion. Bullough especially loves the Age of the Saints and one in particular accompanies him on his journey. St Illtyd. It is a triple view of Wales, he is very much in the present when walking up hills and along the 2000-year-old road, parts of which are still visible. But inevitably he explores the past of the landscapes and the people that inhabited the villages that he walks through. The third aspect of the book is the future of the country as the spectre of climate change looms ever nearer. A further section of Roman road leading north-eastwards from Neath ( Nidum) to Banwen at the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park is also known as Sarn Helen. It continues north-eastwards through the park to the north-west of Ystradfellte, beneath Fan Frynych, and then across Mynydd Illtud en route to the Roman fort of y Gaer ( Cicucium). Bullough is best known for Addlands, a novel set over 70 years on a Welsh farm. His new, non-fiction book tells of his south-to-north walk along the line of Sarn Helen, a Roman road which spans the country and gives the book its title. With the pacing and economy of a novelist, Bullough conjures up a history of Wales both intimate and epic, encompassing the lives of the saints, Welsh language, coal mining and cultural myths, alongside the vivid present day. Here he finds dystopia – a people-less village where robot mowers prowl – and moments of wonder such as the “tenderness” of a late-afternoon view in mid-Wales from Snowdonia to the Brecon Beacons. “It is like watching somebody you love in sleep,” he writes.
A rapturous lamentation, and a winding tale with an unswerving message. One of the best books I've read on the climate emergency -- Chloe Aridjis Sarn Helen is a beautifully downbeat travelogue that's full of love, rage and humour. A brilliant, pivotal book by one of the most engaged and engaging writers around, it will change you -- Toby Litt Part love-letter, part lament, part call-to-action, Sarn Helen is one man’s passionate attempt – in prose that’s at once lyrical and forensic – to put into words what’s at stake for us all in our present moment” Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.Vital, and urgent with concern. You cannot leave this book without its message thundering in your head. It is not enough to walk old routes. This was. Now what? -- Cynan Jones
A deeply engaging, and deeply engaged, travelogue by one of our finest and (old-fashioned word that I can find no modish synonym for) noblest writers” All of these things pertain today, except that the baby is almost my height and has an even more vocal sister. And yet, had I walked Sarn Helen then, rather than in 2020-2021, and decided to write about that, the resultant book would have been something quite different to Sarn Helen as it is now. The problem was that, in 2009, our son Edwyn put in his appearance and all ambition was redefined – principally, as getting any sleep at all. A wondrous and arresting journey teeming with wisdom, insights and humanity. Walking through Wales with Bullough is to see the nation – and the UK – with new eyes” A crucial book for now... Bullough has produced a multilayered and compelling account of his home's imperilled future... Stunning -- Gwyneth LewisA couple of days later, I gave a short talk for Writers Rebel in Trafalgar Square, urging other writers to leave their desks and take direct action because, as Jay Griffiths explains in This Is Not a Drill, ‘words (and this is a heavy heresy for a writer) are not enough’.
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