Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Paths to the Past

  • Encounters with Britain's Hidden Landscapes
  • By: Francis Pryor
  • Narrated by: Francis Pryor
  • Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (27 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Paths to the Past cover art

Paths to the Past

By: Francis Pryor
Narrated by: Francis Pryor
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Fens cover art
Buried cover art
The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places cover art
Wisdom of the Ancients cover art
In Search of the Dark Ages cover art
The Dawn of Language cover art
Ancestors cover art
The Full English cover art
The Mounth Passes cover art
The Road cover art
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
Travel Book cover art
England's Villages cover art
Lost Britain cover art
The Bridleway cover art
Tamed cover art

Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Paths to the Past written and read by Francis Pryor.

Landscapes reflect and shape our behaviour. They make us who we are and bear witness to the shifting patterns of human life over the generations. Formed by a complex series of natural and human processes, they rarely yield their secrets readily. Bringing to bear a lifetime's digging, Francis Pryor delves into England's hidden urban and rural landscapes, from Whitby Abbey to the navvy camp at Risehill in Cumbria, from Tintagel to Tottenham's Broadwater Farm. Scattered through fields, woods, moors, roads, tracks and towns, he reveals the stories of our physical surroundings and what they meant to the people who formed them, used them and lived in them. These landscapes, he stresses, are our common physical inheritance. If we can understand how to make them yield up their secrets, it will help us, their guardians, to maintain and shape them for future generations.

©2018 Francis Pryor (P)2018 Penguin Audio

More from the same

What listeners say about Paths to the Past

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Paths to understanding our world

Always enjoy listening to and learning from Pryor, excellent writer and excellent reader, lots of new perspectives to think about!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A ramble across ancient Britain

A wonderfully entertaining and educational ramble across the ancient paths and roads of Britain.

I had the great fortune to read this right after the Stonemason's Tale which added another layer of understanding to the wonderfully rich history of our great land.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Gentle, educational meander around Britain

I do love Francis Pryor! His narration is gentle but witty, and I love the autobiographical details he drops in to his books that stops them feeling like a history lecture. Wonderfully informative and visually described - I don't always agree with his choice of places but it does mean I've learned about things I would never have read about left to my own devices!

This is a 'must listen' for anyone interested in how Britain came to be, and why.

My only gripe is the thing about the North Yorkshire Moors in the Whitby segment, where Francis mentions Wuthering Heights on a couple of occasions. I would have thought an historian (especially one who knows North Yorkshire so well) would know that the Brontes wrote about the other side of the county, not here!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Stuffy, but some good bits

So-so. Bit nostalgic and sentimenta, and repetitive towards the end. It's quite short so I persevered

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!