John Hillaby was one of Britain’s finest writers on place, nature and the changing landscape of the last century. Born in 1917 he was a journalist by profession finding success as an author in 1964 with his second book Journey to the Jade Sea, the first of his epic walking holidays. He lived an enviable life and influenced scores of future nature writers

Four years later Journey Through Britain was published and cemented his position in the travel literary world. This was an epic journey on foot almost entirely on tracks and bridle ways. Beginning at Lands End on the southern tip of England he walked the western side of Britain until he reached John O’Groats, the uppermost point in Scotland. A solo walker until the time of his third marriage to the renowned walker Kathleen Burton in 1981 he was a remarkable observer of life and landscape and his books are a wonderful reminder of simpler times and a kinder, gentler pace of life.

The notion of making a pilgrimage of sorts has become increasingly popular lately with people realising it doesn’t have to have a religious significance attached to it but that it can still be a spiritual experience nonetheless. Hillaby was a religious man but not overtly so. Following a car accident in the Sixties causing him injuries he never fully recovered from he was still able to carry out these immense walks, undoubtedly for him a miracle of sorts.