The Wild Road Home

A compelling, inquisitive and frequently funny journey through Britain's 15 national parks, and the nature, wildlife and people to be found in them

Cycling through all 15 of the UK's National Parks, award-winning writer Simon Parker explores their beauty, their fragile wildlife and the pressures facing the people who live and work there. What begins as a weekend jaunt becomes a revelatory journey through his home country, and a landscape and nation in flux.

Outdoor enthusiast, cyclist and acclaimed travel writer Simon Parker was restless for a new adventure, but with a small baby his explorations needed to begin at home. He decided to cycle through all 15 of the UK’s national parks in the anniversary year of the first one’s founding, the Peak District. This became a life-changing journey through a landscape, and nation, in flux.

While each of the national parks offered beauty and surprises, all of them revealed the challenges of making space for nature on an overpopulated island. His days within the parks, from Dartmoor to Cairngorms, via the Yorkshire Dales and The Broads, could be idyllic or enraging. He explored wild and remote moors and mountain tops but also got stuck in plenty of holiday traffic. He developed an injury, walked where the bike wouldn’t go, accepted pints and campsite pitches, and talked to everyone he met.

From campers, conservationists, walkers, landowners, farmers, small business owners, commoners, pony lovers, newcomers, tourists, birders and artists – everyone is seeking something different from the hills, dales and waters of the UK. Yet all share the urge for space, fresh air, beauty and the humbled humanity it brings. This is a page-turning, revealing perspective of the British and the wild-ish landscapes they love.