Lost in the Lakes

Tom Chesshyre sets off to make a meandering circle of the Lake District on foot with one aim in mind: 'to let happenchance lead the way.' In his amiable and relaxed company we climb the fells and skirt the lakes; just as engagingly, we meet a carnival of characters whose personalities and opinions are the real focus of Chesshyre's tale. Together they sum up a region whose problems are many, but whose enchantments are still unmatched for walkers in these islands. * Christopher Somerville, The Times *
A charming book, brimming with tender affection for this 'magnificent... dreamy patchwork' of peaks, tarns and 'serpentine valleys... between soaring slopes'. Tom Chesshyre is no brash Wainwright-bagger, but instead a relaxed, affable guide who takes us on a 'big wobbly circle' of a stroll around all sixteen main lakes: an impressive 379 miles in all. Neither travel guide nor gushing panegyric, Lost in the Lakes is a book for the everyday ambler: gentle, slow-paced and sweetly uplifting at every turn. * Rebecca Lowe, journalist and author of The Slow Road to Tehran *
Lyrical, witty and full of cheer, Lost in the Lakes avoids tales of heroic climbs in favour of the quieter - and oft-overlooked - story of everyday life in one of Britain's rural honey-pots. From barmaids to town mayors, Chesshyre lends an inquiring ear to everyone who crosses his path, resulting in a delightful portrait of a community that is proud of its past but unsure of its future. Part travelogue, part social commentary, this gem of a book succeeds in being both politically engaged and uproariously entertaining - a rare feat in travel writing and a welcome new direction for the genre. * Oliver Balch, journalist and writer *
Writer Tom Chesshyre takes us on an unorthodox tour of the Lake District in his latest travelogue. Not for him the chocolate box guide, but a grittier account of his travails, and his travels, on a journey of self-discovery. Having fallen in love with the area as a teenager, he returns to see what has changed, and discovers he has. What follows is a 379.1 mile - that's 904,271 steps over 32 days - odyssey, during which he finds himself falling in love all over again with this remote wilderness. * Lakeland Walker *
An entertaining ramble * Wanderlust magazine *
A cheery account of travel writer Tom Chesshyre's month-long 379-mile hike around the Lake District last spring. He has a journalist's ability to intersperse descriptions of dazzling scenery with brisk historical facts... this book makes you yearn to go there. * Country Life *
Hopefully you will also be entertained. I know I was. * Paul Oldham, WalkLakes *
Book of the month, May 2023 * Countryside magazine *
A new vision of the Lakes as a capsule history of the kingdom as a whole, with its ambivalent approach to 'nature' (worshipful but predatory), its rapacious extraction of resources, its many migrations and, inevitably, class... It is the human encounters - fellow hikers friendly and not-so, get-off-my-land types and we-have-to-make-our-own-entertainment-here stoics, economic migrants, a bibulous local mayor - that make this book sing... Chesshyre [has] an eye for the lives of ordinary folk, the sweat and smoke behind the idyll. * Brian Morton, Times Literary Supplement *
Tom does an excellent job * Sixty Plus Surfers *
A very entertaining, heartening and informative journey to savour and enjoy * David Sibson, editor of the Journal of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Preservation Society *