Kent was Charles Dickens’ favourite county, and he loved to walk it. Walking Charles Dickens’ Kent gathers 17 routes he truly adored: a mix of relaxed town and city trails and longer, focused treks through the countryside Dickens knew so well.
There are country rambles through the marshes of Great Expectations and explorations of childhood haunts in Rochester and Chatham, plus strolls around the favourite holiday towns of Broadstairs, Folkestone and Dover.
Walking Charles Dickens’ Kent will show you the county through the great author’s eyes, take you to his favourite towns, villages, churches, pubs and picnic spots, and let you explore the places where he set key scenes in his greatest novels.
Dickens wrote: “My walking is of two kinds: one straight on and to a definite goal at a round pace; one objectless, loitering, and finely vagabond.’ In this spirit, the walks here will be a mix of rambling town trails and longer, focused country walks.
Walking Charles Dickens’ Kent is designed as both a practical walker’s companion – with maps, detailed routes, places for refreshment and accommodation – and also as an atmospheric armchair read with a rich range of references to events in Dickens’ life, and passages in his books, that are directly relevant to the walk being undertaken.
You can find downloadable GPX files of the routes that you can follow on your phone by using the drop down menu at the top of this page. Full step-by-step walking instructions are available in the book
The book is published by Sigma Press.