WARRINGTON resident Duncan McNamara went on a dangerous 500 mile pilgrimage – walking all the way.
Now, nine years later he has written his first book – a memoir of that pilgrimage in 2014.
The Camino de Santiago – sometimes known simply as “The Way” – is an ancient and dangerous pilgrimage trail of 500 miles across Spain’s Pyrenees Mountains.
“Walk this Way” was tackled during the Covid 19 lockdown and is evocative, absurd and deeply poignant. It tells how Duncan, not a particularly religious man, quickly comes to understand that there are as many reasons for undertaking this pilgrimage as there are pilgrims who have walked it, and his thoughtful, honest writing invites us to pursue our own reflections as well.
The book recounts a fascinatingly personal series of incidents to match Duncan’s idiosyncratic path. Larger-than-life characters are keenly observed with warmth and humour, and the wry depictions of how everyday basics like food, shelter and good sleep are never as simple as they should be and provide a light-hearted counterpoint to the complex history and significance of the Camino.
Duncan said: “It was never my intention to write a book but rather it was something that happened organically; my father died, leaving hints that he would have liked to know more about my pilgrimage almost six years after it ended, and the time and motive to revisit my diary from that summer led to something more than I had anticipated.”
“Walk this Way” will be published next month by Oil on Water Press, the true-life and memoir imprint of independent UK publisher Headpress.
