Böcker av David Bamford

This is a collection of writings, in prose and poetry, mainly related to walking, something of which I do quite a lot. It was begun during the time of the Covid pandemic, when movement was restricted. It had been my intention during that time to walk the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route which ends in the city of Santiago de Compostela where, it is said, the remains of St James the Apostle are buried.While waiting for that possibility to materialise, I undertook two other pilgrimages, the Withorn Way, in south-west Scotland, and the Two Saints Way, through Staffordshire and Cheshire. These two journeys sharpened my taste for pilgrimage, and eventually, in 2022, I was able to walk the Camino. As I walk I think. The thoughts transfer themselves into words which, in turn transform themselves into sentences, paragraphs and lines of poetry. Thus are books composed....

On Easter Sunday 2017, with the retirement of the Vicar, the Benefice of Lanercost with Walton, Gilsland and Nether Denton entered a period of vacancy which lasted for over a year and a half. During this time, regular services were maintained, albeit with a little shaving of corners here and there. The author, a Reader in the Benefice, was one of a team of people leading services and preaching on a regular basis. The contents of this book provide a record of the vacancy in the form of sermons and reflections.The title is prompted by the phenomenon of ?the flowering desert,? which occurs every ten years or so in the north of Chile, when unusually copious rainfall at the end of winter causes the arid semi-desert terrain to bring forth flowers in profusion.Cover photograph by Paul Bamford