The Walking Book Group
Ramblings
BBC
4.5 • 768 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2013
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clare Balding is walking for self improvement in this new series of Ramblings; in six weeks time she hopes to be smarter, fitter, calmer and cleverer. In this first programme she joins a walking book group in North London, who find wandering on Hampstead Heath much more conducive to discussing literature than sitting round a coffee table. The walking book group is the brainchild of Emily Rhodes from the local Daunt book shop.Emily explains to Clare how she chooses the books each month and why she thinks the group attracts a growing and enthusiastic following. The book under discussion today is Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Clare, an English graduate, joins in enthusiastically with her opinions on the novel as well as discussing with fellow group members the issues of aging, loneliness and retirement homes. Archie, her Tibetan Terrier accompanies Clare but is sadly, not improved by the experience. Producer: Lucy Lunt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon, |
| 0:06.3 | and I make podcasts for the BBC. I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. But when I started |
| 0:12.0 | commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts. I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right |
| 0:17.8 | mixture of sounds could take you into a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to |
| 0:25.2 | give it a go myself, which to cut a long story short led to a BBC training scheme and a whole |
| 0:29.9 | new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories |
| 0:34.1 | that make you go wow like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC |
| 0:38.0 | sounds. This is a BBC Radio 4 download. You're listening to me, Claire Balding with another |
| 0:44.4 | edition of Ramblings. So you know what it's like every new year you make a series of resolutions |
| 0:52.7 | and by February you've broken them |
| 0:54.5 | or forgotten them so over the next six weeks we promise on ramblings to explore the ways in which |
| 1:00.0 | walking can make you better and I mean calmer fitter cleverer more positive in tune with your |
| 1:07.6 | emotions whatever it is that you need to become walking can help you get there. |
| 1:11.8 | And today I am in a bookshop in Hampstead. |
| 1:14.5 | Daunt Books, it's dog friendly, which is good news for Archie because he's with me. |
| 1:18.3 | A group has gathered because all of us are going to walk on Hampstead Heath. |
| 1:22.1 | This is a book club, but not like any other book club, because it's a walking book club. We have all of us read |
| 1:27.8 | Mrs. Paul Freight at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor and we should discuss it as we walk. |
| 1:34.0 | Now the brains behind this idea is Emily Rhodes. Emily, why did you come up with a walking |
| 1:39.0 | book club? Well, the thing I find about walking is that we have our best thoughts, our best ideas, our best conversations when we're walking. |
| 1:49.0 | I love going for walks on Hampstead Heath and so do so many of our customers. |
| 1:53.0 | I thought there must be a way of getting the bookshop onto the Heath and making friends with the customers up there on something that we both love doing |
... |
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