Passionate Walkers: David Nicholls
Ramblings
BBC
4.5 • 768 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2016
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding talks to those for whom walking is more than a leisure activity but a passion that's vital to their lives. In this first programme she goes to Thursley in Surrey to meet the novelist and screenwriter, David Nicholls. His first novel, 'Starter for Ten' was followed by the much acclaimed 'One Day', and as David admits to Clare. its success took him a little by surprise. They take an eight mile circular route around The Devils Punchbowl. David explains how important walking is to his creative process, although he always worries its a bit of a skive ! However, he finds it the ideal way to listen to and absorb a novel when he's adapting one of the classics for TV, as he did with 'Far From the Madding Crowd'. He talks to Clare about how he loves exploring new cities by foot and the techniques he uses to encourage his children to walk. The walk Clare and David took can be found on OS Explorer map OL33 & 145 or Landranger 186, the map reference is SU 955 414, the walk starts in the village of Thursley about 3 km south-west of Godalming. Thursley GU8 6QD Producer: Lucy Lunt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a BBC Radio 4 download. You're listening to me. Claire Balding with another edition of ramblings. |
| 0:07.2 | I'm standing on a patch of triangular, freshly mown grass outside a very pretty English country pub, |
| 0:13.6 | and it could only be an English country pub. It's red brick with hanging baskets, overflowing with flowers, |
| 0:19.3 | and just behind me a cottage hidden by a massive hedge |
| 0:22.6 | and rambling roses to the side of its garage. This is the village of Thursley. It's just off the |
| 0:27.8 | A3, barely a mile and a half, actually, off one of the major dual carriageways of South England. |
| 0:33.6 | We're in Surrey and we're very close to the most extraordinary natural feature called The Devil's Punch Bowl. |
| 0:39.0 | We're going to explore that in the company of David Nichols, author of One Day, of Us, of incredibly successful TV screenplays as well. |
| 0:48.1 | And this is a route, David, that's very familiar to you. |
| 0:50.9 | It is, yes. I mean, I'm a Londoner. I live north London, noise, dust, pollution, |
| 0:56.9 | and I'm always looking for places within an hour of London where you can actually feel alone. |
| 1:02.5 | So that's the challenge, really, to be able to get on a train for 45 minutes and find yourself |
| 1:07.4 | quite isolated. And the Surrey Hills, weirdly, is one of those places. |
| 1:11.9 | You can take a train to Godalming and walk for 20 minutes |
| 1:16.4 | and really find yourself quite isolated. |
| 1:19.0 | It is an extraordinary landscape, because if you want to follow us on the map, |
| 1:22.4 | we're on OS Explorer, OL 33, which is Hazelmere and Petersfield, |
| 1:26.6 | and you just open it up and look at all the contour lines, |
| 1:29.3 | because the landscape around here is so varied and steep. |
| 1:33.8 | And we are, as I said, the village of Thursley, which is just west of the A3. |
| 1:39.8 | We're going to be heading towards the devil's punchbow, which is a sort of hindhead area, isn't it? |
| 1:43.9 | Just the other side of this row of houses is Thursley Common, |
... |
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