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The Parallel Path

Love, Grit and Walking the North

Author: Jenn Ashworth  

The Parallel Path
Hardcover

A memoir of walking the Coast to Coast path - and a lesson in caring: for one self and for others.From acclaimed author Jenn Ashworth.

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Pre order release date
16th July 2025
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Hardcover

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

A memoir of walking the Coast to Coast path - and a lesson in caring: for one self and for others.From acclaimed author Jenn Ashworth.

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Description

'Whether it's strange and haunted novels that linger long after the last page has been turned, utterly unnerving short stories or brave memoir excursions in which her own life is laid bare, whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it'

BENJAMIN MYERS, author of The Offing

'With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom'

JESSICA ANDREWS, author of Milk Teeth

'A miracle of a book . . . A life exquisitely examined over a long walk across the north of England, from one of our finest human nature writers'

RICHARD BEARD, author of Sad Little Men

'Stunning - and stunningly intelligent . . . I was very moved and with her every step of the way'

JULIE MYERSON, author of Nonfiction

Burnt out and longing for an escape, Jenn Ashworth emerged from lockdown with a compulsive need to walk - and to walk away. Armed with little more than the knowledge imparted by a two-day orienteering course and a set of maps, she embarked on the most epic of English walks: Wainwright's Coast to Coast.

Guided not just by Wainwright's writing but also by daily letters from her friend Clive - facing an epic journey of his own - Jenn's pilgrimage soon becomes more than just walking: a chance to reconnect and excavate, to re-engage with the act of caring for others and for oneself.

But the walk's tricky terrain is not the only thing standing in Jenn's way. As days go by, her balance begins to fail her and the act of putting one foot in front the other becomes a new exercise in caution. When a vicious heatwave forces her to pause her expedition and gives her an opportunity to investigate the new limitations of her body, Jenn is confronted with a life-altering diagnosis - and a new path of self-discovery.

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Critic Reviews

Whether it's strange and haunted novels that linger long after the last page has been turned, utterly unnerving short stories or brave memoir excursions in which her own life is laid bare, whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it -- Benjamin Myers, author of THE OFFING
The Parallel Path is an exploration of need and care. As Jenn Ashworth walks across the country, she learns the strength and precarity of inhabiting a body, and the measures we sometimes take to resist softness. She considers what it means to be from the north, a place which predicates itself on toughness, and how to make space for vulnerability within that. With honesty, humour and determination, Ashworth's journey takes the reader from coast to coast in search of freedom, teaching us to recognise the fragility and strength in our mortality -- Jessica Andrews, author of MILK TEETH
A miracle of a book in which parallel paths meet: friendship and solitude, strength and weakness, sickness and health. A life exquisitely examined over a long walk across the north of England, from one of our finest human nature writers -- Richard Beard, author of SAD LITTLE MEN and THE DAY THAT WENT MISSING
A stunning - and stunningly intelligent - piece of writing about love, friendship and our relationships with our bodies and ourselves. Ashworth's walk is partly a way of keeping loss at bay, and her bravery - both in life and on the page - is exceptional. I was very moved and with her every step of the way -- Julie Myerson, author of NONFICTION
A wonderfully tender, generous tale of care and companionship in all its forms. The Parallel Path is a pilgrimage through one woman's life of loss and love, and a powerful friendship. Ashworth deftly articulates the experience of walking as a need to leave and just keep going - and the power to be able to come back to yourself. She explores the value of solitude and aloneness and the complexity of the human need for contradictory things and how we learn to live with ourselves nonetheless. Ashworth writes with warmth and self-deprecatory humour, noticing the everyday detail in the ordinary moments of life with a vibrancy that makes you feel as if you are walking along beside her. Never sugaring the pill, she holds her own dilemmas and frustrations lightly, but without undermining them, before you know it you are immersed in her world and wishing you were there too. The Parallel Path shows us the importance of place on who we are, how it houses our memories and griefs, of human stories of living and dying, and our imperfect response to each of these things. It is about expected and unexpected illness and of one woman's path in navigating all the trip hazards on route. A masterclass in memoir and place writing, and a gentle critique of Wainwright (and charity marathons) along the way -- Louise Kenward, editor of MOVING MOUNTAINS: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability

PRAISE FOR JENN ASHWORTH
'A sharp cultural critic'
OLIVIA LAING, GUARDIAN

'A seriously gifted writer'
IRISH TIMES

'A master of modern storytelling'
EMMA JANE UNSWORTH, author of Adults

'Since her debut, Jenn Ashworth has been quietly collecting honours for her distinctive, empathetic and sharply observed novels'
DAILY MAIL

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About the Author

Jenn Ashworth is the author of the novels A Kind of Intimacy, which won a Betty Trask Award, Cold Light, The Friday Gospels, Fell and Ghosted: A Love Story, which was shortlisted for the Portico Prize. In 2011, she was featured on BBC Two's The Culture Show as one of the twelve Best New British Novelists. She has also written a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.

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Product Details

Publisher
Hodder & Stoughton | Sceptre
Published
17th July 2025
Pages
336
ISBN
9781399725057

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