After reading William Least Heat-Moon's classic Blue Highways, I was hungry for a sequel, a follow up. While this is interesting as a background to his writing of that book, it's a little unsatisfying as a background to the journey itself. That's not what he intended, I guess, so I'm falling into that common trap of not liking a book because it wasn't what I was looking for. As a background to the writing and endless attempts to get it published it's fascinating, however. He's a colourful and evocative writer, and I suspect he's a colourful character.

The very colourful Giuseppe Garibaldi is considered to be Italy's greatest national hero for his contribution to the unification of Italy in 1861. However, earlier in his campaign, in 1849, he abandoned his defence of Rome against the superior French forces, and escaped overland with 4000 troops to both evade capture, and to rally support in the regions. They walked and rode hundreds of miles across the Appenines to reach the Adriatic Sea. In this book, old Italy hand Tim Parks and his wife decide to retrace his steps on foot.

The Passenger is a new journal, started in 2020, and publishes 3 or 4 titles a year, each featuring a different country, city or region. It's a little like Granta in that it carries new writing, photography and art, and reportage in each issue, mostly by local writers. It's always very nicely produced, with textured cover, generous format, well reproduced photography and lively design. I loved the Greece issue.

Nina Mingya Powles, who lived in Wellington for a while, and is now in London, is a poet and writer. This is a collection of personal essays, mostly with some connection to swimming, water, and coasts, and through this she explores such things as migration, food, family and connection, butterflies and fish, and home. It's a lovely book, nostalgic, yearning, descriptive and varied. Essential reading.

Melissa Harrison is one of Englands leading nature writers, through her three novels, one other nature book, and the anthologies she has collected. This book, covering 2014 to 2020, is compiled from entries in her Nature Notebook column in The Times, and follows her observations in London, and later in a Suffolk village. She writes evocatively, with heart and sensitivity, it's honest and moving, and beautifully packaged, with line drawings. A lovely book.

In 1978, Heat-Moon, who is of European and Osage descent, lost his job and his wife, and set off on a 13,000 mile journey around America, mostly by backroads. Along the way he talked to people from all walks of life, and here reports on the state of rural America, the landscape, the politics, the people, and the small towns which were already under threat, and the seeds of later political shifts were already present. He encounters kindness, racism, loneliness, adventure and much more. This is a classic travel narrative, echoing Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie as well as others.