On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain by Oliver Smith
Bloomsbury Continuum, £20, 256 pages
A book about pilgrimage should make me a pushover as a reader. I love reading about pilgrimage, especially when imprisoned in the Catholic Herald basement office, forced to realise my pilgrimage dreams vicariously through books such On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage Across Britain, in which Oliver Smith retraces old pilgrimage routes and visits sacred sites all over the UK.
Unfortunately, we did not get off to a good start. Admittedly, the problem wasn’t really Smith’s fault. It started with the publisher’s note accompanying the book that arrived at my dungeon. “He is not committed to any religion,” stated the last line of an otherwise decent summary about the book and its author. Why mention that? I don’t care if he is or he isn’t—well, I do care now that you have told me and made a point of it. For one, it’s symptomatic of the bland, non-committal, everything-goes shallowness of the modern landscape. Secondly, what does it mean? Does the author believe in God or not? It doesn’t inspire confidence. We don’t read cookbooks put together by people who don’t know how to cook.
