As the Crow Flies: A Walk from Edinburgh to London in a Straight Line

by Janet Street-Porter

Following in the footsteps of her successful BBC2 1998 series, Coast to Coast, As the Crow Flies describes Janet Street-Porter's attempt to walk the 350 miles from Edinburgh Observatory to Greenwich Observatory in a dead straight line. She discovers a new way of walking—the OS map isn't quite so handy when you can't stray off a line you've drawn on a map. What's more useful is a heavy clearing stick, the power of persuasion, and the patience of a saint. Janet adopts the old ramblers' cause of the "right to roam," discovering some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain—as well as bargaining and begging her way into secure properties, dodging Boeing 737s on take-off, and invading army bases and Saturday morning golf tournaments, all in the name of completing this mammoth walk strictly as the crow flies.

311 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998