Walking Tours

The Inklings are often characterized as mostly sedentary men who wrote about people going off on adventures. Yet for a few of them, the highlight of their year was the chance to go on walking tours throughout England.

It's unlikely, in fact, that they would have been able to describe the adventures of, say, Elwin Ransom, or the three friends in Night Operation if they didn't take these rambles (and write about them!) from time to time. 

With me to talk about the Inklings' walking tours are Inklings scholars Sørina Higgins, Don W. King, and (for the first time), Owen A. Barfield, grandson of Owen Barfield. 

We cover a lot of ground during this conversation. Topics include:

• What exactly a walking tour is/was
• The walking tours Jack and Warnie took versus those Jack took with the "Cretaceous Perambulators" (Barfield and others)
• Why these excursions tended to be documented a bit better than Inklings' meetings at Magdalen
• Humor and bawdy among the Inklings
• Connection between walking, talking, and working ideas out
• "The Inkling Impulse"
• What different Inklings looked for in a successful walking tour
• Influence of the walking tours in the Inklings' fiction

My thanks to all three of my illustrious guests for joining me. You can find more about them and their work here:

• Sørina Higgins
• Don W. King
• Owen A. Barfield

See you in two weeks' time! As always, please do rate the podcast, and if you have ideas or responses, please do email me at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com.