'I wanted to walk a songline into my past, peeling back the layers to touch the places which had been important.'
Carol Donaldson, a woman on a journey of self-discovery and in On the Marshes (published by Little Toller) offering a varied and different perspective to the 'journey' which takes her to the Kent Marshes. This is not an area I know at all, and its one I might have been in danger of dismissing as 'uninteresting' if I'm honest...now I actually want to buy a map and have a really good look around.
The break-up of a long-term relationship, employment and housing difficulties, some decisions that seemed right at the time but which have gone sour and Carol embarks, deciding to head out walking from Gravesend to Whitstable and exploring 'the different ways we live on this tribally divided island.'
Carol quickly gets into her stride...
' Suddenly I had fallen into step with a person who had always been walking alongside me, just out of reach.'
...first passing through an area known as the Plotlands; small plots of land bought by working-class London families often as refuge from the war but also as a place to escape to at the weekend and for holidays. Author Lena Kennedy was a Plotlander, living happily among the self-built huts and sheds though sadly, but not unexpectedly, the Plotlanders way of life has been eroded by the encroachment of the city ..
'competing interests co-existing unsuccessfully in a an overcrowded corner...'
'When did we change?' asks Carol, 'when did we stop believing that we could do things for ourselves and instead give the reins of our lives over to others?' as she explores the simple things in life and where it had its origins.
But there is beauty to be found along the way too and in the most surprising places, we don't have a monopoly on the skylarks out on Dartmoor.
But what do you think...is it my imagination...
Because one of the aspects of On the Marshes that struck me time and again was how much easier it is for a man to up sticks and walk it all out of his system than it is for a woman. There are different risks and threats, different constraints. I'd like to think it wasn't more difficult ...but it would seem to be, and there are certainly moments when Carol Donaldson is fearful and wonders what she is doing and why. It is at these moments that Carol offers a very different, and to me fascinating, perspective on the whole Journey Memoir in this book which was a compelling read.
There is a hair-raising, and I mean really hair-raising, encounter with a tidal causeway being crossed with a male friend who urgently needs to get back to land (car in car park, car park locked at night, no mobile, worried wife and child) and the fear is palpable. I could feel my heart racing as if I was there...it's writing that segues perfectly into any reader's own near-miss encounters (mine probably getting caught walking and camping in the middle of Dartmoor on the weekend of the 1979 Fastnet storm) and equally fascinating is the male-female dynamic at play that Carol Donaldson describes, and her part in the decision-making process which would end in rescue by the coastguards.
A spade is a spade and Carol certainly doesn't mess about calling it a shovel because unlike so many of these memoirs, which often only meet nice, friendly, welcoming people (and perhaps seem obliged to stay on the side of political correctness ) she is not afraid to call out mean-spirited-ness when she finds it. I actually found this tell-it-like-it-is honesty very refreshing and along the way Carol is equally open and honest about her relationship and employment difficulties...
...and I wonder if this is another difference between the male and female writers...
...perhaps Amy Liptrot led the way with The Outrun, perhaps there are others who were already forging the path and I am blinkered.
...or perhaps I have been reading the wrong books and there are plenty of men out there sharing not just their physical journeys but the emotional journeys too.
I am sure you will be able to suggest plenty more reading in comments...
And if you know and love the Kent Marshes now is the moment to say so and persuade us all to visit...
Where would be a good base...
I gather Whitstable quite on-trend and up-market these days, Carol has this to say...
'I reached the Seasalter beach huts and entered the invisible force field of Whitstable, the Emperor's New Clothes of seaside resorts...'
If we visit what should we see...
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