I set aside today as a ‘reading day’ so that I can start making an in-road into some of the books I’ve brought with me. Some, I have some familiarity with and are with me for reassurance and dipping back into and others are more specific to the work I’ll be planning whilst I’m here.
In particular, I’m keen to read Estuary by Rachel Lichtenstein, who grew up in Southend on Sea and has strong connections with Chalkwell Hall, where I am staying. The book developed out of an inter-disciplinary art-project initiated by Ben Eastop and Simon Callery, who invited the writer to join them on an experimental journey by Dutch barge, along the Thames Estuary as an immersive exploration and experience of the waterway and its outer reaches. This voyage of discovery, adventure and potential risk particularly appeals to me, as does the detailed investigation of the territory.
I’m also keen to read Tom Chesshyre’s From Source to Sea: Notes from a 215 -miles walk along the River Thames, for obvious reasons. This traces a walk made by the writer from the river’s source in the Cotswolds to the North Sea, an extension of the Thames Path, not normally covered in maps and guides of the route, which generally don’t go much beyond the Thames Barrier. I was drawn the diaristic style of the book and also by the author’s quest to undertake it as a continuous journey over several days, stopping off overnight en route in various hosteleries. As an account of a walk the tone appears meandering, slow-paced and conversational, quite different to how I imagine my run of a similar route will be. I’m keen however to get a sense of a route and to also to see if at any point the author may have strayed from it.
Being here near Southend, I found myself drawn to Estuary and the strong, personal sense of place it evokes. I had initially planned to read both books simultaneously; Source to Sea by day and Estuary as bedtime reading, but having started the latter as I was falling asleep last night I was keen to continue. I devoured the first section that describes the first attempt of the journey out to sea and I found myself reading from the back of the former book as a means of trying to connect the two. But these are two very different books and probably best read separately.
I’m not sure how I’ll continue but tomorrow (today, since it’s after midnight) I’m off for another run. This time I’ll take the road down to the seafront, turn left and outwards towards the wider reaches of the sea and see where it takes me…
