A journey through space & time in the steps of George Borrow

Nick Kingsford

2025 | 180pp pb colour photos | ISBN: 978-1-914002-59-5

In 2004, just after his 60th birthday, Nick Kingsford walked from Caernarfon to Swansea in the steps of the nineteenth century philologist the Englishman George Borrow. This extraordinary man spoke fluent Welsh (along with half-a -dozen other languages). He was a prodigious walker who could cover 30 miles in a day. He wrote an account of his walking trips in 1854 called “Wild Wales’ which was Nick’s reference for planning his own walk.

Nick’s aim was to follow Borrow’s route as closely as possible, visit the towns, villages, sites and inns that Borrow had visited 150 years earlier.

Nick was educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Boys Grammar School in Barnet and at Hornsey College of Art in London. He re-trained as a land surveyor then worked producing maps and plans throughout the UK, finally settling in S Wales. This book brings together his love of maps, navigation on foot, the natural world, language and poetry.

He wishes that he could have met George Borrow (1803 - 1881).