Sara Wheeler

Via dolorosa

Hoping to beat his inner demons, Guy Stagg sets out on pilgrimage, taking refuge with strangers or sleeping in convents, monasteries and mosques

Guy Stagg walked 5,500 km from Canterbury to Jerusalem, following medieval pilgrim paths, and he records the expedition in The Crossway. It was a journey from darkness to light, as the author, who suffers from mental illness, looked for redemption. It was also a considerable feat, especially as Stagg proclaims lugubriously at the outset: ‘I’m not much of a walker!’

He stayed in convents, monasteries, in his tent, in disused schools or the homes of strangers, and, later, in mosques. He crossed the Alps in winter in order to make Rome for Easter, and it took him six days to clear the Apennines. On the trail, he reflectsa good deal on what he has been through — a breakdown, suicide attempts, the nature of mental illness. ‘Though I hoped to walk free of my sickness,’ he says, ‘its memories still haunted me.’ Good and bad happens on the way; he gets ill, physically as well as mentally. The narrative of the book follows the modulation of the author’s moods.

An atheist with a deep sense of the spiritual, Stagg several times compares his motives for escaping the world for almost a year with that of the monks and holy men he meets. It is a fertile topic. Direct speech salts many pages and individual stories form a thread that runs throughout the book; it helps that Stagg speaks French and Italian and picks up Turkish en route. Chunks of history are nicely handled, from the Cathars to Bohemian revolutionaries, and, notably, the First Crusade.

Stagg travels through 11 countries, if you include Britain. He sees the Pope appear in Rome and includes a history of pilgrimage to the Eternal City and the meaning of the Stations of the Cross, but gets claustrophobic in the crowds and has to leave town.

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