Winner - Edward Stanford Travel Memoir of the Year 2019.
Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize.
In 2013 Guy Stagg made a pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem. Though a non-believer, he began the journey after suffering several years of mental illness, hoping the ritual would heal him. For ten months he hiked alone on ancient paths, crossing ten countries and more than 5,500 kilometres.
The Crossway is an account of this extraordinary adventure. Having left home on New Year's Day, Stagg climbed over the Alps in midwinter, spent Easter in Rome with a new pope, joined mass protests in Istanbul and survived a terrorist attack in Lebanon. Travelling without support, he had to rely each night on the generosity of strangers, staying with monks and nuns, priests and families. As a result, he gained a unique insight into the lives of contemporary believers and learnt the fascinating stories of the soldiers and saints, missionaries and martyrs who had followed these paths before him.
The Crossway is a book full of wonders, mixing travel and memoir, history and current affairs. At once intimate and epic, it charts the author's struggle to walk towards recovery, and asks whether religion can still have meaning for those without faith. It was a BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' on publication.
About the Author
Guy Stagg was born in 1988 and grew up in Paris, Heidelberg, Yorkshire and London. The Crossway is his first book.
Industry Reviews
'What a privilege it's been to read this compelling and moving book, to travel with a writer who records everything he sees and feels with such care and passion. The writing is beautiful and his voice so engaging, so unflinchingly honest, throughout. I finished The Crossway and just wanted the author to keep walking.'
James Macdonald Lockhart, author of Raptor
'The Crossway is a gentle, kind, generous-spirited book, rich in detail, encounter and history. But most importantly, this is the story of a young man, from a secular world, who undertakes a pilgrimage to try and mend himself - a courageous inner journey.'
Neil Griffiths, author of As a God Might Be
'Behind the cliche of the most important journey in life being the one taken inside oneself lies a timeless and powerful and vital truth: that the goal of such a quest, with all its anguish and revelation and excruciating realisations, is a place of great and lasting calm. This is the core of Guy Stagg's necessary and beautiful book.'
Niall Griffiths, author of Grits
`I loved it. Stagg is an engaging, challenging, endlessly interesting companion who just happens to write formidably well. Travel writing has a bright new star.'
Alexander Frater, author of Chasing the Monsoon
