I’m having lots of fun reading Tristan Gooley’s **The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs”, that has a nice Victorian title and is a sturdy, thick, no-nonsense hardback.
And it talks about what it says on the label.The idea is to provide “walkers” – that is, people that take pleasure in walking, hiking and rambling about… to provide them, I was saying, of the tools to help them read the landscape and understand the relationships between its various elements: hills, rivers, trees, buildings, etc.

The idea is to provide “walkers” – that is, people that take pleasure in walking, hiking and rambling about… to provide them, I was saying, of the tools to help them read the landscape and understand the relationships between its various elements: hills, rivers, trees, buildings, etc.

The book is basically a course in observation, applied to the temperate environment – designed for Britain but suitable for most of Europe. The book intercepts three (count’em, three!) of my interests.

Gooley’s book intercepts three (count’em, three!) of my interests.

• Firstly, my geological background and my interest for the practice of landscape reading and interpretation.
• Secondly, my habit of walking around to clear my head, exercise my legs and put some clear air in my lungs.
• And Thirdly, a lot of these practices and skills are the sort that come handy when writing – because everybody loves a hero that can really be at home in nature.

I have two other books by Gooley here waiting to be read – great author, excellent books.
And I can file the lot as “research”.