Alastair Humphreys finds wonder in the area he calls home and explains we all have a local area worth exploring
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In Local, adventurer and writer Alastair Humphreys spends a year roaming the area around his home, a span that measures just 20 kilometres across, and yet we never find out where in the country this area is – that’s really not the point. This isn’t your usual travel memoir, detailed with accurate place names and everything else a reader might need to imitate the journey. Instead of inspiring us to visit his ‘local’, Humphreys is making the point that we all have a local area worth exploring.
After all, wherever it is, Humphreys makes plain that his 20-kilometre map is hardly the most exciting or wild spot. Without knowing the exact coordinates, it quickly becomes clear that we all know the sort of place: suburban, often dotted with litter, close to motorways and new housing developments, zig-zagged with power lines. A seasoned adventurer more used to travelling across remote and exciting places, Humphreys admits that he doesn’t really like his current home and resides there only for the benefit of his young family. The reader might wonder, at the start of the book, how he intends to fill its pages with this unpromising adventure. Nevertheless, page by page, we’re won over.
Humphreys is a wonderful writer who recounts his travels with good humour and an easy pace. As he stumbles upon hidden patches of wildlife, or chats to local characters, surprising details about the land and its history emerge. Almost every stretch of unassuming ‘empty’ space sparks a story, or a question, and among the small and seemingly insignificant emerge much bigger topics, including pollution, access to land, agriculture, the food system and rewilding. ‘Is a single map enough exploration for an entire lifetime?’ Humphreys asks. Reading Local you could certainly believe so. This is a manifesto for paying close attention, feeling wonder in the everyday, and appreciating the place you call home.
