Cols and Passes of the British Isles
Published on 5. April 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-14-198145-1 (ISBN)
Description
A col is the lowest point on the saddle between two mountains. Graham Robb has spent years uncovering and cataloguing the 2,002 cols and 105 passes scattered across the British Isles.
Some of these obscure and magical sites are virgin cols that have never been crossed. Dozens were lost by the Ordnance Survey and are recorded only in ballads or monastic charters. The eleven cols of Hadrian's Wall are practically unknown and have never been properly identified.
These underappreciated slices of natural beauty provide a new way of looking at British history, and a challenge for cyclists and walkers.
Some of these obscure and magical sites are virgin cols that have never been crossed. Dozens were lost by the Ordnance Survey and are recorded only in ballads or monastic charters. The eleven cols of Hadrian's Wall are practically unknown and have never been properly identified.
These underappreciated slices of natural beauty provide a new way of looking at British history, and a challenge for cyclists and walkers.
Reviews / Votes
If you have legs, or a bicycle, or indeed both, you are going to love this book...The work that has gone into this small, vast, perfectly formed and beautifully bound thing is quite incredible. * Spectator * Don't pass up the chance to discover 2,002 ways to route plan across Britain -- Roger Cox * Scotsman * A wonderful writer . . . No one else so relishes the odd corners of history * Sunday Times * He is such a warm, gentle and generous writer, with no faux scholarly tosh or solitary ecstasy riffs * Evening Standard * A delicious and hypnotically fascinating masterpiece of squinty-eyed fanaticism -- Stephen Bayley * Spectator Books of the Year * It's more than a mere compendium of geographical data, Robb's warmth and passion for the subject offers a refreshing take on reading the landscape of the British Isles - and a different way of thinking about cols in general * Sb Nation *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
305 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-198145-1 (9780141981451)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Graham Robb
Cols and Passes of the British Isles
E-Book
06/2016
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€10.99
Available for download
Person
Graham Robb is an acclaimed historian and biographer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has won the Whitbread Biography Prize and the Heinemann Award for Victor Hugo, as well as the Ondaatje Prize and Duff Cooper Prize for The Discovery of France. He lives on the English-Scottish border (and within a day's ride of one hundred and seventy cols).