Book review: Weird Walk

Weird Walk (Watkins, London, 2023)

As a confirmed megalithophile (hence this blog's header image) and quite a long-term admirer of the Weird Walk 'zine, I'd been anticipating this book for a number of months. I had mixed feelings though. The 'zines are always fun, very often informative, but they have a few little quirks that can grate: unattributed/uncaptioned images, patchy citations, slightly weird 'spoiled' looking photos like the one below, and some occasionally dud guest writers.

...but you simply can't dislike a 'zine that kicked off Issue 1 with a suggested weird walking playlist of dungeon synth choons. Personally, I'd call most of them dark ambient... but I agree they can be marvellously atmospheric (walking or static).


A big concern of mine was that the book would duplicate content from the 'zines and since it is not a cheap book by any means, I held back on a purchase until, a few days before publication, the promotional material finally mentioned "all new material" (and merely a Foreword by Stewart Lee).

The book is arranged as an extended trek through "the British ritual year" (as was Ronald Hutton's immense The Stations Of The Sun). Each of the four seasonal sections has a brief introduction and a neat mini-almanac of worthwhile dates and events. Then there's a succession of site reports, eight in each section. They're all illustrated, a few of the 'spoiled' photos are included, and so too some marvellous quirky line drawings.

Each report includes OS co-ordinates for the authors' suggested weird walks. I've visited quite a few of them at least once, and not been able to find at least one of them: Greywethers (p.207) this summer.  And yes, I did have my OS Map (and the app) but <excuse mode>it was totally pissing it down</excuse mode>. (Quite a fun feature of that dismal day was several times crossing paths with a little Peugoet, I too drive a little Peugoet, and we waved and smiled and shrugged.)

When I say 'site reports': in some cases the reports are of events, like the Abbots Bromley stag dances. This has been covered in the zine before (and so have one or two of the sites, but by guest writers). Weird Walk is a handsome production, entirely cherishable, that I did not want to end, rationing myself to a site a day, well.... okay just one more (and so on).

The sites are a really good mix and I was very impressed that even the entry on Stonehenge had new details I'd never read anywhere before. Silbury too, which includes a spectacular (drone?) overhead image showing the whole magnificent site.

( Review continues... )