Part 1 - Reading the Way

Reading the Way

Along the Way

Pilgrimage Scenes from the Camino Francés to Santiago de Compostela

Available from the publisher at libripublishing.co.uk

Available online at Amazon

And this is Man’s whole life a Pilgrimage

—Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimages (Hakluytus Posthumus)

“Long before one ever takes one’s first footsteps on the Camino another pilgrimage has often been traversed in the comfort of one’s home. This is a pilgrimage of pages, navigated over the period of years, sometimes decades, through the background literature and personal narratives of the Way to Santiago de Compostela. And for every pilgrim, there is a unique, never waymarked, transitioning from pages to pavement.”

—Along the Way, Part I, page 11

My own first introduction, age 13, to medieval pilgrimage and Santiago de Compostela, in December 1970 and March 1971

“I restricted my review of the Camino literature to accounts by Canadian pilgrims…To round out the number of books to thirteen, for no better reason than to be reflective of the number of stages Aymery Picaud suggested the journey should take on horseback in his medieval guidebook, I added expat American Lee Hoinacki’s 1997 book, which was the first pilgrim narrative I purchased.”

—Along the Way, Part I, page 15