Singing for our Supper by W.R. Parsons is one of my favourite books of the last five years. An inspiring account of a pilgrimage of sorts from Kent to Cornwall in search of connection to the landscape and kinship with the people they met along the way.

Will Parsons and his friend Ed set out on a modern day pilgrimage beginning in Kent and walking through Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon before finally reaching Cornwall. They took a proverbial vow not to pay for any accommodation nor use tents, preferring instead to be as closely connected to the land as possible.

The pair also became wandering minstrels, singing traditional old folk songs and sea shanties to quite literally pay for their supper.

The follow up book to Singing for our Supper is the wonderful compilation of traditional songs selected by Will called Songs of the Way published via his website https://wayfaringbritain.com/ and these give us a flavour of the songs they sang on their journey and how each one invariably deepened their footprint in the English landscape.

There are of course far harsher terrains to walk than Southern England but that should take nothing from their feat. It was a hard slog, often in very inclement and uncomfortable weather. Food, like money was often short but they took it in their stride. Good deeds performed gave good returns and it is easy to see how they will have left memories on the doorsteps of those they received shelter from.

Their visits to churches and other holy places was particularly interesting, they were recognised as pilgrims: “These are genuine pilgrims, the first we have taken in for over three hundred years” said one Master monk to his brethren.

Singing for our Supper is a wonderful book, full of good things we should celebrate; nature, friendship, compassion for others, good deeds done and hope. I say hope because it is a story of two young men being helped on their way by strangers. They are polite, well-educated men who posed no threat and were treated in kind. Their ability to find pleasure in eating simply from the land or trading a meal in a pub for a song or three is inspiring. It shows the best kind of humanity that is displayed with or without a religious belief and much better off we would all be if we all showed a little more compassion for one another….

‘Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;

Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest 

Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest, Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.

All of the night was quite barred out except An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry 

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill, 

No merry note, nor cause of merriment, 

But one telling me plain what I escaped 

And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,

Salted and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice Speaking for all who lay under the stars, Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice’

-The Owl by Thomas