Rob Cowen with Dan Richards for The North Roads

"A haunting exploration of time, place and memory along the road to London-Edinburgh highway. Radical. Beautiful. Brilliant." ~ Robert Macfarlane

Rob Cowen is an award-winning writer and author, hailed as one of the UK's most original voices on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His second book, Common Ground was shortlisted for the Portico, Richard Jefferies Society and Wainwright Prizes and voted one of the nation's favourite nature books of all time in a BBC poll. His follow-up, The Heeding, was the best-selling debut book of poetry in 2021.

Rob joins us to celebrate the publication of The North Road.

At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.

In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.

Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain's great highway.

Rob will be interviewed by Dan Richards, the co-author of Holloway (with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood), and the author of Climbing Days and Outpost. Dan's new book is Overnight in which, through a series of personal journeys Dan explores what the night means to a fascinating array of people, taking us from night terrors to the glow of watching the dawn break on the summer solstice. Overnight will change the way you think about the hours after dark.

There is something special about the night. For many, just the idea of it conjures thoughts of starlit skies, romance, refuge, of being tucked up in bed. For some, the night means fear, vulnerability, danger, sleeplessness. At night things go bump, monsters hide under beds, owls take wing and foxes prowl. For others still, nightfall signals the start of work.

Overnight is a celebration of all things nocturnal, of those who labour while the rest of us sleep: the bakers, health workers, sailors, couriers, broadcasters, drivers, fishers, the emergency services and more. And it is also a hymn to nighttime wildlife, dreams and art. We'll hang out with bats and look at the stars. We'll learn what Moomintroll has to teach us. We'll travel by ship, train, racing car and foot. There will be more than one surprise along the way.