In the literary footsteps of such walkers as Rebecca Solnit and Lauren Elkin, and in the character of the ‘rambleuse’, Jacky Colliss Harvey traverses the county of Suffolk from west to east, from velvety farmlands to uncompromising sea.
She is in excellent company – her fellow walkers range from Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson to Patricia Highsmith, Maggie Hemingway, and Noreen Masud. They include the poets George Crabbe and Edward FitzGerald; literary greats Wilkie Collins and George Orwell; W. G. Sebald, who found a new native land here; and writers born in Suffolk, such as M. R. James and Ronald Blythe.
Part writer’s notebook and part memoir, this is book about walking and writing: about walkers who wrote, and writers who walk; about the creative circuit that exists between mind and feet, and landscapes that exist in front of you or that spring to life in a line of words.
Thoughtlands by Jacky Colliss Harvey is published on 2 April, 2026.
This is one of more than 130 historical books published this year which appear in Historia’s Books to look out for feature.
