Random Home presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook model of The January Man by Christopher Somerville, read by Christopher Somerville.

In January 2006, a month or two after my dad died, I thought I saw him again – a momentary impression of a vintage man, a little stooped, setting off for the walk in his feature fawn corduroys and shabby quilted jacket. After teenage rifts it had been walking that brought us nearer as dad and son; and this ‘ghost’ of Dad has been walking at my on the subject of The January Guy: a calendar year of strolling Britain elbow since his death, as I’ve ruminated on his great like of strolling, his prodigious need to do it – and exactly how and just why I walk myself.

The January Man is the story of a year of walks that was inspired by a music, Dave Goulder’s ‘The January Man’. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville strolls the British Isles, pursuing routes that constantly bring his father to mind. As he travels the country – from the wintertime floodlands of the River Severn towards the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs in the Shetland Isle of Foula in June and the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest in fall – he details the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rainfall and fair climate.

This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not merely inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we are able to come to a knowledge of ourselves and our fellow walkers. On the hills and along the byways, Christopher Somerville examines what moulded the guys of his father’s generation – therefore reticent about their wartime encounters, therefore self-effacing, upright and dutiful – as he looks for ‘the guy inside the guy’ that his very own father actually was.