When we followed the Camino in 1988, nobody had heard of the internet. Now many pilgrims are using apps rather than books for directions and advice, and we are using them as back-up too. But like many of our generation, we are using a book as the main source of information, and this post celebrates that plus two books which helped shape our first visit.
John Brierley’s “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago” has been our constant companion. First written in 2003 and updated almost every year since, it is several books in one. It sets out the route in some detail, split into 33 stages,with sketch maps of each stage, and town plans of the main places. It also lists accommodation options, and talks about the history and the buildings along the route. Not for nothing is it subtitled ‘A Practical and Mystical Manual’ – Brierley offers regular reflections on the spiritual side of the Camino as he sees it. These won’t appeal to everyone, but we’ve certainly found the book as a whole helpful. Thank you.
Our enjoyment of the 1988 trip was much enhanced by two very different books. Robin Neillands’ “The Road to Compostela” is an account of a cycle trip from central France to Santiago, bringing out both the ups and downs of Camino life, and the excitement and romance of following in the footsteps of medieval pilgrims. There are dozens of tales of Camino trips these days, some factual, some fictional, most upbeat, but none of the ones I have read have quite captured the atmosphere in the same way.
Neilands died some years ago, but the author of the other book from the 1980s, John Hooper, is still writing, now for the Economist. He has been in Italy for some time, but was then the Guardian’s Spain reporter, and wrote a book called “The New Spaniards” which explained the journey, then barely a decade old, from Franco to democracy and the social changes that had followed. It was a fascinating companion to what was a new country for me. Hooper updated it in 2006. Much has changed since then, but I read that with interest before coming. With riots in Barcelona as I write, Hooper was far-sighted in commenting that regional nationalism was “the single biggest imponderable in Spain’s future”. Thanks for all the insights here too.