The Selfies questions for 2024 non fiction winner J F Penn

What made you decide to write Pilgrimage?

I've been writing snippets of memoir for many years, keeping notes and starting a number of projects based on my travels, but I never found a way to link them together.

In late 2019, I stopped sleeping and started feeling depressed, and then, of course, in 2020, the pandemic disrupted all our lives. I've always been a walker, but during those years, I started going on longer multi-day walks, and always alone. I needed the space physically and mentally, as I struggled with confinement and a loss of direction.

I thought I might write a series of walking guides, taking notes as I walked The Pilgrims' Way from Southwark Cathedral in London to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England; then the St Cuthbert's Way from Melrose in Scotland to Lindisfarne, Holy Island; and finally, the Camino de Santiago along the coastal route from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.