The Wild Rover: A Blistering Journey Along Britain’s Footpaths

Mike Parker, bestselling author of Map Addict, is back with a brilliant, intelligent, and witty exploration of a glorious and passionate British subject—footpaths and our rights of way. Mike discovers how these paths have become part of the UK’s cultural landscape and why, at the tender age of 44, he suddenly finds himself at a crossroads. Provocative, funny, and personal, this book celebrates Britain’s unique and extraordinary network of footpaths. It examines their surprisingly turbulent history, from the Enclosures Acts of the eighteenth century to the 1932 Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, and from the hard–won post–war establishment of great National Trails to the dramatic latter day battles by the likes of Nicholas van Hoogstraten and Madonna to keep ramblers off their land.