Paths to the Past cover art

Paths to the Past

Encounters with Britain's Hidden Landscapes

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Paths to the Past

By: Francis Pryor
Narrated by: Francis Pryor
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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Paths to the Past written and read by Francis Pryor.

Landscapes reflect and shape our behaviour. They make us who we are and bear witness to the shifting patterns of human life over the generations. Formed by a complex series of natural and human processes, they rarely yield their secrets readily. Bringing to bear a lifetime's digging, Francis Pryor delves into England's hidden urban and rural landscapes, from Whitby Abbey to the navvy camp at Risehill in Cumbria, from Tintagel to Tottenham's Broadwater Farm. Scattered through fields, woods, moors, roads, tracks and towns, he reveals the stories of our physical surroundings and what they meant to the people who formed them, used them and lived in them. These landscapes, he stresses, are our common physical inheritance. If we can understand how to make them yield up their secrets, it will help us, their guardians, to maintain and shape them for future generations.

©2018 Francis Pryor (P)2018 Penguin Audio Archaeology Architecture Earth Sciences Europe Great Britain Science England Thought-Provoking

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All stars
Most relevant
Always enjoy listening to and learning from Pryor, excellent writer and excellent reader, lots of new perspectives to think about!

Paths to understanding our world

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I do love Francis Pryor! His narration is gentle but witty, and I love the autobiographical details he drops in to his books that stops them feeling like a history lecture. Wonderfully informative and visually described - I don't always agree with his choice of places but it does mean I've learned about things I would never have read about left to my own devices!

This is a 'must listen' for anyone interested in how Britain came to be, and why.

My only gripe is the thing about the North Yorkshire Moors in the Whitby segment, where Francis mentions Wuthering Heights on a couple of occasions. I would have thought an historian (especially one who knows North Yorkshire so well) would know that the Brontes wrote about the other side of the county, not here!

Gentle, educational meander around Britain

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A wonderfully entertaining and educational ramble across the ancient paths and roads of Britain.

I had the great fortune to read this right after the Stonemason's Tale which added another layer of understanding to the wonderfully rich history of our great land.

A ramble across ancient Britain

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So-so. Bit nostalgic and sentimenta, and repetitive towards the end. It's quite short so I persevered

Stuffy, but some good bits

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