Immagine dell'autore.

Hugh Thomson (2) (1960–)

Autore di The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland

Per altri autori con il nome Hugh Thomson, vedi la pagina di disambiguazione.

13+ opere 505 membri 18 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Hugh Thomson is a writer, researcher, and documentary filmmaker
Fonte dell'immagine: Hugh Thomson

Opere di Hugh Thomson

Opere correlate

Oxtravels: Meetings with Remarkable Travel Writers (2011) — Collaboratore — 57 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome canonico
Thomson, Hugh
Data di nascita
1960
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
UK
Istruzione
Eton College
Attività lavorative
author
filmmaker
film producer
travel guide
Organizzazioni
BBC
Breve biografia
[from The Map Tour]
Hugh Thomson is an author, film-maker and explorer whose books include The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland, Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico, which was serialized for BBC Radio 4, The Green Road into the Trees, which won the 2014 Wainwright Prize for nature and travel writing, and One Man and a Mule.

Utenti

Recensioni

Ever since Wainwright popularised the Coast to Coast in his book it has become one of the countries favourite walks with thousands of people taking a couple of weeks to walk it every year. There have even been some mad souls who have run it, completing it in under two days! Hugh Thomson though is doing things differently and undertaking the route with a mule called Jethro. Mules are not that common these days, but they were regularly used as pack animals until the middle ages and then stopped being used for one reason or another.

Having got a mule with him, he is not going to be able to use the footpaths recommended in the guide book, however, he is going to be following the old drovers roads that are slowing fading from the landscape from lack of use. This not about the journey either, rather this is his way of meeting the people that live along the route and taking the time to contemplate life a little and think. Jethro is a conversation starter as well as being a silent companion, and he has it the easiest too. Rather than being saddled with loads that his medieval forebears would have been expected to carry, he is very lightly loaded. He is also accompanied by the Irish writer, Jasper Winn, who you’d normally fine in a boat. It does make a slight mockery of the title of the book, but Winn adds far more depth to the walk as they set the world to rights across the spine of England.

It had parallels to Spanish Steps, where Tim Moore walks across Spain with a donkey. Not as funny as that book, but I thought that this was a really enjoyable meander across the bridleways of north England very loosely following the coast to coast path. I liked that fact that he wasn’t trying to add deeper meaning to this walk, rather doing it because he could and because he wanted too. The conversations with the people that he meets, from other authors to old school friends he hasn’t seen for half a lifetime, add depth to the book and he little sojourns to see particular things of interest highlight how much history is layered on this landscape. Both authors were frustrated that Jethro’s social media page had more likes then either of theirs which did make me chuckle.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
PDCRead | 1 altra recensione | Apr 6, 2020 |
Hugh Thomson first went to Peruvian Andes at the age of 22. He was seeking a ruin that had been discovered a while ago, before being lost to time again. As a fresh faced youth, he found the Inca people and the places he visited compelling, confusing but most of all intoxicating. Walking in the footsteps of the great explorers, such as Bingham, who discovered Machu Picchu and Chambi a famous South American photographer, he travels across plains, over mountains and hacks through jungles in search of the people of this land. However, this book is more than that; it is a personal journey back through time to see the sights of the ancient civilisation and to learn of how it was destroyed by the brutal Spanish conquistadors.

Drawing on his experience of making documentaries Thomson has woven together the historical account of the Incas along with details of his two expeditions to the South American continent. As he went several times with a substantial gap in between the first and second visits, he has split his account over two sections. In each part, he writes about the people and places, the heart stopping moments when travelling in the mountains and jungles and of life in the towns and villages in Peru. The first trip was with two friends, but later he went alone, employing guides to accompany him as he sought the hidden world of the Inca. Whilst this is good, and I enjoyed it, I didn’t think it was as good as Tequila Oil, his trip to Mexico. Still worth reading though for an insight into the modern lands that sit on so much history.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
PDCRead | 7 altre recensioni | Apr 6, 2020 |
Thomson undertakes a walk along the route of the Ichnield Way, an ancient path probably around 3000 - 5000 years old in parts.

He starts in Abbotsbury in Dorset, at the far end of the Fleet, and crosses Dorset and Wiltshire continually passing hill forts, barrows, mound, stone circles and other glimpses of prehistoric and bronze age life in this country. The journey takes him across the country to Norfolk where he end his walk at the place where Seahenge was excavated from.

I quite enjoyed it, as it combined some of my favourite subjects, history and travel, and the writing is effortless to read. He also looks back at his life, following a painful divorce, and of friends past, and journeys traveled. I think that took a little away from the essence of the book, but still glad I have read it.… (altro)
 
Segnalato
PDCRead | 2 altre recensioni | Apr 6, 2020 |
Very interesting; I wonder how outdated the hypotheses are now, but nonetheless I'm sure I know more about Peru than I did before.
 
Segnalato
tronella | 1 altra recensione | Jun 22, 2019 |

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Statistiche

Opere
13
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
505
Popolarità
#49,063
Voto
3.8
Recensioni
18
ISBN
2,041
Lingue
36

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