Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future

Product Information

It is a triple view of Wales, he is very much in the present when walking up hills and along the 2000-year-old road, parts of which are still visible. But inevitably he explores the past of the landscapes and the people that inhabited the villages that he walks through. The third aspect of the book is the future of the country as the spectre of climate change looms ever nearer.

The trail passes through some of the most beautiful and breathtaking scenery in Wales. You will traverse the crags of Eryri, ride the spine of the Cambrian Mountains, pass over Bannau Brycheiniog, and cross The Gower, a ll in one week. Vital, and urgent with concern. You cannot leave this book without its message thundering in your head” The Sarn Helen is no easy multi-day adventure. Riding the length and breadth of Wales will push your body and mind to the limit day after day as you climb nearly 30,000ft (8500m) over six days riding through some of the most challenging, wild and remote landscapes in the UK. I thought this mix of travel, nature and environmental writing was really good. Bullough gets the balance between each element right.Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. His fears for the future of Wales have prompted him to join Extinction Rebellion, and he has been convicted and fined for civil disobedience. Radical action is not the only available solution to global warming. Nevertheless, Bullough makes a persuasive case for it here, in and around his rich depictions of the homeland he loves so much. And, of course, its plight is far from unique. Their footsteps merge as Bullough finds awe and tranquility in the wild, ‘sometimes it will bring me such a sense of uplift that I find I have forgotten to breathe. Sometimes my mind will clear for minutes at a time, seeming to leave nothing but a blazing light’. Sarn Helen is not just the line of a road but a line through time connecting us to the past people of Wales.

An impassioned book that rings with beauty, grief and urgency. As he journeys through Wales’ past, present and future, Bullough sounds a clarion call for us all to play our part in averting global catastrophe” However hard this is to face, and despite the many times I have wept inconsolably whilst reading, this book is an absolute must. It has left an imprint upon my soul. We must talk about this fight, because fight it is. Bullough speaks to a series of environmental scientists, mostly based in Welsh universities. Some are so sad that they seem about to weep in the middle of their Zoom calls. Others are frustrated by a continuing misapprehension among the public. While thinking about Wales in relation to global heating can sound funny – what could be nicer than turning up the thermostat on the country’s habitual chilly drizzle? – it turns out that the results will be nastier than anyone anticipates. As Prof Mary Gagen of Swansea University explains: “We can expect a lot of very, very wet summers and winters and the crop failures that accompany that will cause severe food shortages.”Part love-letter, part lament, part call-to-action, Sarn Helen is one man’s passionate attempt – in prose that’s at once lyrical and forensic – to put into words what’s at stake for us all in our present moment” An impassioned book that rings with beauty, grief and urgency. As he journeys through Wales' past, present and future, Bullough sounds a clarion call for us all to play our part in averting global catastrophe -- Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

A couple of days later, I gave a short talk for Writers Rebel in Trafalgar Square, urging other writers to leave their desks and take direct action because, as Jay Griffiths explains in This Is Not a Drill, ‘words (and this is a heavy heresy for a writer) are not enough’. Sarn Helen – Helen’s Causeway – is the old Roman Road that runs from the south of Wales to the north. More has changed in the past fifty years than the past six thousand. We are on target for reaching catastrophic global temperature increases, meaning the collapse of societies.Bullough has produced an urgent logical and lyrical call for climate action, using his deep knowledge of Wales, past and present, as a catalyst. This is a stunning book” A deeply engaging, and deeply engaged, travelogue by one of our finest and (old-fashioned word that I can find no modish synonym for) noblest writers” We recently joined a coachload of local people travelling up to London for the XR Gathering. It was peaceful, organised, with upwards of 60,000 very nice people attending of all ages, hardly terrorists. Bullough is convinced that adapting to the climate crisis depends not simply on technical fixes but on new stories and principles for how to live better with the natural world. Christianity took hold in Wales so strongly, he argues, because it fitted its values and places of worship into pre-existing religious systems. In an era of climate crisis, “we can’t just conjure these stories up out of nowhere and expect them to take hold. If we are to remake ourselves, we have to do it around indigenous stories and traditions,” he says. “To a large extent, we’re talking about adopting a new moral code. What precedent do we have for that but the transition between different religions?”

Sarn Helen is a thrilling journey through Wales and through time… This is the finest kind of travel writing: a book that makes you see what is really there, and fills you with the author’s passion to defend it” As Tom walks the route, sometimes alone, sometimes in company, he describes the changing landscape around him and explores the political, cultural and mythical history of this country that has been so divided, by language and by geography. These conversations are written as though the reader is present. Bullough has already used specificity to build our relationship and so we trust the experts too. It is scary and painful to read, but fuels the need to act. As Dr Claire Earlie says, ‘This is our home, and so it’s important to us’.His account of the disasters that threaten his country also stands as a wider warning to the rest of us. As Bullough says: “A glimpse into the future of Wales could give a glimpse into the future of us all.” And quite literally by his side are friends Christopher Meredith and Jay Griffiths who accompany Bullough for stretches of the walk, providing an insight into character as well as humoured light relief in the naming of sleeping bags and sharing of food in the dark. A book of our time which spoke to me because it provides a local, relatable, perspective on the climate crisis * Modron * Sarn Helen is accomplished and stunning in every one of its many personalities: as history, as memoir, as eco-parable, as impassioned call to arms”