Check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025

Book Summary and Reviews of Landlines by Raynor Winn

Landlines by Raynor Winn

Landlines

The Remarkable Story of a Thousand-Mile Journey Across Britain

by Raynor Winn

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Sep 2023, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

The powerful story of a 1,000-mile healing walk—from the lochs of Scotland to England's southwest coast—in a remarkable evocation of modern-day Britain.

Raynor Winn knows that her husband Moth's health is declining, getting worse by the day. She knows of only one cure. It worked once before. But will he—can he?—set out with her on another healing walk?

The Cape Wrath Trail is hundreds of miles of grueling terrain through Scotland's remotest mountains and lochs. But the lure of the wilderness and the beguiling beauty of the awaiting glens draw them northwards. Being one with nature saved them in their darkest hour years earlier—and their hope is that this experience can work its magic again.

So Raynor and Moth embark on an incredible thousand-mile journey: from Scotland to the familiar shores of the South West Coast Path, from Northumberland to the Yorkshire moors, and from Wales to home again. As they map with each step the landscape of their island nation, they find themselves facing existential questions—about themselves and about their country—during this epic, inspiring odyssey.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Inspiring. The narrative is so vividly drawn and emotionally resonant that most readers will come to feel like one of the family, sharing their pain and uncertainty and eventual triumph. This is an unforgettable story about fragility girded by resolve and the courage to keep going, even if it's just that one more step, and to hold fast to hope. Winn exudes the soul of a poet and the grit of a survivor." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This is a story of grit and persistence, but most importantly, a tale of putting oneself 'in the way of hope.' Readers familiar with the couple's previous adventures especially will love this third installment." —Booklist

"Fans of The Salt Path will love this moving continuation of Raynor and her husband Moth's journey. Alongside beautiful nature writing, there are thought-provoking observations on our countryside and the threat it is under." —Good Housekeeping

"As well as a portrait of a telepathic marriage of true minds, and a snapshot of a fretful island, this is a soaring lament and a tub-thumping tirade?for all that is being lost, for all that may yet be saved." —The Telegraph (UK)

This information about Landlines was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Raynor Winn

Raynor Winn is the bestselling author of The Salt Path and The Wild Silence. The Salt Path won the inaugural RSL Christopher Bland Prize and was shortlisted for the 2018 Costa Biography Award and the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. The Wild Silence was shortlisted for the 2021 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. She is a regular long-distance walker and writes about the nature of our relationship to the land. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Moth.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more travel & adventure...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Message
    The Message
    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    It does not surprise me that Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Message is one of the most important books I've ...
  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.