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LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2025 AND A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

‘A dazzlingly inventive work of literature’ Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways

‘A wonderful, epic braiding of history, geography and personal memoir’ James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral
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At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.

In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.

Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain’s great highway.
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‘This is an astonishing book in its scope and vitality. It’s one to relish and revisit.’ The Telegraph

‘A remarkable, post-Covid, post-Brexit state of the nation literary archaeology.’ Financial Times

‘Stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one’ Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole

‘A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip’ Melissa Harrison, author of All Among The Barley

‘Thought-provoking and beautiful’ Matt Gaw, author of Under The Stars

‘A beautifully woven and mesmerising book’ Tom Bullough, author of Sarn Helen

‘Sweeping, sensitive and enduring’ Tristan Gooley, author of How To Read A Tree

Publisher Review

‘Haunted and haunting: Cowen tracks the London-Edinburgh highway in a mesmerising exploration of time, place, memory and identity. A dazzlingly inventive work of literature.’ * Robert Macfarlane * ‘When I began this book, I wondered if it would be for me. I didn’t think I was interested in roads. But The North Road is a wonderful, epic braiding of history, geography and personal memoir. It made me think deeply about who we are, and where we came from; our country in this moment in time, and how we can learn from our past. I couldn’t put it down.’ * James Rebanks * ‘I’ve just finished The North Road and it was stunning, weaving an intricate tapestry of tarmac, humanity and time, as rich as the dark earth on which his many threads lie. It will stay with me.’ * Raynor Winn * ‘A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip.’ * Melissa Harrison * ‘I don’t know how he does it, but in combining deep history, travel, memoir, fiction and so much more besides, Rob Cowen has created something stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one. He’s a wandering wizard, a magician whose brilliance lies not in trickery, but in real talent and a wild, untamed imagination that’s capable of transcending time.’ * Benjamin Myers * ‘Epic, magisterial, hard-won, properly-wrought – much like the Great North Road itself. Truly, a tour de force…you may read another book in 2025, you will not read a better one.’ * John Lewis-Stempel * ‘A masterful weaving of time and place. The North Road offers a rare, strong blend of national and personal – sweeping, sensitive and enduring.’ * Tristan Gooley * ‘Rob Cowen weighs up the mighty A1 from the hard-packed solum beneath its pitch to the aerial maps by which so many steer its course. A deep time hymn to a mercurial trunk route that’s beckoned, blistered and borne travellers for centuries unknown, The North Road is by turns brilliant, questing and poignant. Equal parts ardent asphalt anthem and song to belonging, Cowen’s new book is a north/south tour de force.’ * Dan Richards * ‘Rob Cowen’s account of a journey on foot fragments – startlingly – into history, fiction, philosophical enquiry and fearless memoir. A beautifully woven and mesmerising book.’ * Tom Bullough * ‘A road, like a story, is never just that. Both have roots, tributaries, ancestors and consequences. From first step to surprise destination, The North Road is as layered and braided as the route it follows, and as brutal, beautiful and unique as a life. With his singular blend of research, personal exploration and intensely visceral storytelling, Rob Cowen is truly in a class of his own.’ * Amy-Jane Beer *