This book celebrates the history of walking for leisure and pleasure. There's no shortage of the famous, and the not so famous, exponents of a good, long walk: Dr Johnson and his faithful Boswell on their Hebridean jaunt; John Taylor, whose Penniless Pilgrimage, a record of his 1618 journey from London to Edinburgh, provided the first account of a walking tour; and Samuel Coleridge who conceived his epic tale of the Ancient Mariner on a ramble through Devon. The author also includes the stories of key inventions: the cagoule, the Thermos flask, the rucksack, Gore-text and the walking pole. Fully illustrated throughout, Byways, Boots and Blisters tells the engaging history of one of man's favourite pastimes.