The A303: Highway to the Sun - Hardcover

Tom Fort

3.54

267 ratings by Goodreads

9780857203281: The A303: Highway to the Sun

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857203282 ISBN 13: 9780857203281

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2012

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The A303 is one of the essential routes of English motoring, promising to whisk the traveller towards the green and honeyed lands of Somerset and the far west to a world of holidays and escape (although these journeys all too often grind to a standstill.) Yet the 303 is more than a road. It is a story. Four-and-a-half thousand years ago the bluestones of Stonehenge were conveyed west from the river Avon along a small section of its route. Roman roads crossed it and drovers' paths lie beneath it. Its route cuts across some of the finest chalkland in southern England. Tom Fort wanders across the summits of the downs, takes in the views and investigates the evidence of ancient habitation and worship. He samples the fare at the Willoughby Hedge Cafe, legendary among truckers. He seeks out service stations and inns and turnpike toll houses; tells stories of dreadful crashes and highway robberies; of solstice seekers and Stonehenge; of Queen Guinevere and Sir Launcelot; of army camps and racing tracks; Battles and festivals; of churches, abbeys, farms, houses, burial mounds, trout fishermen and falconers. Digging in dark corners, exploring long-forgotten byways and poring over ancient maps, Tom Fort has created a book of travel, and of social and cultural history, as alive to the England of 3000 BC as the England of 2012 AD.

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Review:

Delightful, nostalgic, slyly witty, perceptive . . . a wonderfully charming book - Spectator

A lovely book . . . At last someone has celebrated the romance of a British road - Guardian

An epic journey to the South-West. The A303 is a road like no other, a route that has become part of the English way of life. Tom Fort highlights its enduring appeal - Independent

Fort gets down on his hands and knees to decipher the ancient lettering on ancient stones and reveal stories from the days of Ethelred. Forts book is also a mediation on the motor car itself: it is a force for darkness or for liberation? - Independent on Sunday

Here Fort unearths a tenth-century story of internecine lust, treachery, betrayal and murder worthy of the Icelandic Sagas - Times Literary Supplement

Anyone who has holidayed in the West Country will enjoy 'The A303'. Tom Fort s diligent digging under the tarmac has uncovered a great stash of tales - The Sunday Times

Tom Fort's book, named for a well-used English road, is a smoother ride: elegantly written, with a dry humour and an eyebrow raised - Economist

Roads to our past don t come much richer...a meditation on the great route to the west and its ancient origins - Sunday Telegraph

A nostalgic experience, informative, humorous, charming, but pervaded by the bitter-sweet scent of regret --Daily Mail

Roads to our past don t come much richer...a meditation on the great route to the west and its ancient origins. --The Sunday Telegraph

'A nostalgic experience, informative, humorous, charming, but pervaded by the bitter-sweet scent of regret' --Daily Mail

About the Author:

Tom Fort was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1978 he joined the BBC in London where he worked in the BBC Radio newsroom for 22 years. He lives in South Oxfordshire with his wife and two of his children and has been travelling up and down the A303 for over five decades.

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