After burn-out & a lockdown, author Jenn Ashworth needed to walk and to walk away. Tackling Wainwright’s Coast to Coast, Jenn embarked on a journey of reconnection, self-discovery and a life altering diagnosis.
Burnt out and longing for an escape, Jenn Ashworth emerged from lockdown with a compulsive need to walk - and to walk away. Armed with little more than the knowledge imparted by a two-day orienteering course and a set of maps, she embarked on the most epic of English walks: Wainwright's Coast to Coast. Guided not just by Wainwright's writing but also by daily letters from her friend Clive - facing an epic journey of his own - Jenn's pilgrimage soon becomes more than just walking: a chance to reconnect and excavate, to re-engage with the act of caring for others and for oneself. But the walk's tricky terrain is not the only thing standing in Jenn's way. As days go by, her balance begins to fail her and the act of putting one foot in front the other becomes a new exercise in caution. When a vicious heatwave forces her to pause her expedition and gives her an opportunity to investigate the new limitations of her body, Jenn is confronted with a life-altering diagnosis - and a new path of self-discovery.
Jenn Ashworth is the author of the novels A Kind of Intimacy, which won a Betty Trask Award, Cold Light, The Friday Gospels, Fell and Ghosted: A Love Story, which was shortlisted for the Portico Prize. In 2011, she was featured on BBC Two's The Culture Show as one of the twelve Best New British Novelists. She has also written a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.
Event information
£2 off all tickets for under 25s
Borderlines offers free tickets for carers, please email borderlinescarlisle@gmail.com to book.
Events last 55 minutes (unless otherwise stated), with additional time for authors to sign books (venues permitting). Seating is unreserved and doors will open 20 minutes before an event.
In the event of a talk or workshop being cancelled, refunds will be offered. No other refunds or exchanges are available.
The festival bookshop is run by Bookends, Carlisle’s independent bookshop.
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