‘The book might have given you an idea, but it didn’t change your lives.’ – Raynor Winn

A short extract from Landlines by Raynor Winn:

From nowhere a couple flop down in the heather next to us.

‘Well, hello there. We’re walking the Pennine Way, going north just a few days at a time. But you, I know you’ve walked a long way.’

I look down at my clothes, muddy, ripped, smelling of dried bog-water. ‘I know, we do look a bit of a mess.’

‘No, you can’t get away with it like that. I know who you are. Your book changed our lives – it changed the way we live our lives. We would never have given ourselves the time to just walk, not before we read your book.’

I look at the couple, heading towards middle age, but glowing from the wind, sun and enthusiasm. ‘The book might have given you an idea, but it didn’t change your lives.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Because books don’t change lives. They can change how you think, but it’s you that changed your life. You allowed the book to influence you, then you chose to change how you live. The power was always in you, the book just opened the door.’

‘Ooh, you make me feel quite powerful, quite in control.’

‘I think we all are, if we allow ourselves to be. Do you want a jelly baby?’

Raynor Winn, Landlines

Header Image: This is Castlerigg Stone circle looking out over St. Johns in the Vale and towards Helvellyn on a strange August day of showers and a little sun. These stones have stood here for several thousand years, and a bit of precipitation isn’t going to make much difference to that. Why did someone put them here, there are lots of theories, but no one really knows.