The Accidental Pilgrim: Travels with a Celtic Saint: Amazon.co.uk: David Moore: Books

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'Read the first chapter and I'll guarantee you'll want to read the whole book.'

Ernie Whalley, Food and Wine Magazine
'Human, humorous and extremely well-written'

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarship plus readability equals a good read, 1 Jan 2005

By	"petereverestt" - See all my reviews

There are an awful lot of books around about Santiago de Compostela in particular, and pilgrimages in general; and let's be quite truthful a lot of them are rather average. But one that stood out from the crowd for me was David Moore's The Accidental Pilgrim which was published in 2004 by Hodder Headline Ireland, and is available in both the UK and US.

The Accidental Pilgrim is the story of a 1500 mile bike ride by the author from Bangor in Northern Ireland to Bobbio in northern Italy via France and Switzerland. The journey follows in the footsteps of the Irish missionary Saint Columbanus who made the journey in the 6th Century. Although Saint Columbanus' missionary work on mainland Europe ended under something of a cloud, within 50 years of his death there were over 100 foundations with ties to the Columbanian mother houses of Luxeuil in France and Bobbio in Italy.

In his book dot com escapee David Moore manages to balance scholarship (he is a graduate of Cambridge and Trinity College, Dublin) with readability, while managing to avoid the leaden 'I am a dumb traveller, and these are the dumb things that happened to me' style of humour regularly served up by Bill Bryson, namesake Tim Moore, and so many others. The book also manages to avoid the trap of simply being a diary of places, journeys and punctures. In this his first book Moore manages to include enough personal detail to make the author as well as the journey come alive, and that is a difficult thing to achieve.

What makes the book even more noteworthy is the web content that is linked to it. The book has its own site with related material. In particular it is a brilliant idea putting the original proposal for the book on the site. This is a first class example of a published first time author using the web to share his experiences. David Moore also has a personal web site which is well worth a visit.

The Accidental Pilgrim is a good read. It is also a first class example of the combined benefits of adding value to a conventional book by supplementing it with additional and dynamic online material. Recommended.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent travelogue, 25 Jun 2004

By	Dubliner (Canada) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent read - witty, intelligent and at times poignant. Moore is an excellent travel companion, and you do feel like your are cycling with him across Europe as he follows the trail of St Columbanus. Not a professional cyclist, Moore decided to travel across France as a post dot-com project. I look forward to his next venture.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ireland to Italy on Bike!, 28 Nov 2006

By	R. McHaney (Kansas, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A travel book can be more than just a detailed chronology of logistics and fantastic sights that can't be missed along the way. David Moore demonstrates this unequivocally with his engaging account of an inspiring bicycle pilgrimage from Dublin, Ireland to Bobbio, Italy following the faint tracks of Dark Ages Irish monk, St Columbanus. Moore starts the book by drawing the reader into the dramatic climax of his trip with the harrowing details of his bicycle descent from Splugen Pass in the Alps to peaceful Chiavenna in the valley below. He then cleverly recounts the progression of events bringing him to that point in his life. Moore alternately educates, amuses, and delves deeply into his inner journey as he pedals across a continent and tries to reconcile the complexities of his identity, motivations, and life choices. Although well organized for riding with neatly packed panniers and an array of maps and plans, his `real' life as an Englishman living in Ireland after having spent considerable time in the USA seems less organized and more daunting. Earlier careers as a technical writer and a dot com era Internet whiz weren't satisfying and left him wondering about his life's direction. Moore seized on the idea of the pilgrimage and its promise to resolve his internal uncertainty but part way through the trip, events such as 9-11 and later the crash of an SAS jet at the Linate airport help him form a new thesis that life should be enjoyed while it can without guilt. This lightening of his soul is reflected in entertaining accounts of his experiences with a variety of eateries and hotels. Along the way he argues with St Columbanus about the dangers of religious extremism and admires the Saint's contributions that are still remembered to this day. The book ends without a clear picture of Moore's future but that's okay because it leaves room for a sequel. This reviewer can only hope he plans more travel and the development of another inspiring and entertaining book like the Accidental Pilgrim!

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The Accidental Pilgrim: Travels with a Celtic Saint (Paperback)

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