Many of us make New Year’s resolutions. Few of us stick to them. Fewer still turn their pledges into a truly transformative experience. Kate Schuler and Christopher Shoebridge went even further. In 2017, they made the bold decision to walk the entire length of the South Downs Way over precisely one calendar year, watching the seasons shift and change, taking in every path, landscape, building and peculiarity that caught their eye.
Better still, they decided to take us with them on their personal odyssey, and have now produced a book blending Kate’s lyrical and informative text with Christopher’s soaring and uplifting photographs, capturing the Downs in all their moods, mystery and majesty.
The couple’s journey begins at dawn, on New Year’s Day, at Beachy Head, where they find the landscape solemn and subdued, despite the howling wind. As they climb the steep ascent to the rugged cliff-top, they pass the lifeless skeletons of last year’s teasel, rosebay willowherb and buddleia.
Kate, well versed in local history and topography, notes the ancient field systems and Bronze Age burial sites of our ancient forbears, easily missed by the casual observer. As they pause for breath, they look back over the groynes on the beach at Eastbourne, and out to Dungeness beyond. Ships float serenely on the horizon while the cries of gulls mingle with “elated whoops” from a paraglider.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
