Journeys: From a Dream of Islands to Elysian Lockdown

This travelogue of lived experiences of the natural world, before and during the pandemic, comprises memoir extracts, stories, poems and e-mails. It is presented in inter-related, reflective narratives, both linear and fragmented, together with references to literature, music, art and film. Association and flights of fancy are used to explore the journeys of the mind in response to the sensory stimulants of the natural world; stimulants which may take us further into the natural world, or may unlock the imagination to take us somewhere else. In JOURNEYS the road is made by walking. Destinations are often unknown and outcomes uncertain. Process is more significant than product and the book turns on the idea of a reflective bricolage rather than rational argument and conclusions. The writer inhabiting nature, music in nature, and music as an art form, sits next to the myths and legends of storied landscapes, conceits of the mouth and the scallop shell, and concepts such as the pilgrim and the eclipse. The watchword of JOURNEYS as it moves from A Dream of Islands to Elysian Lockdown is empathy.