In this anniversary year of the beginning of the 1914-1918 Great War, I have been mugging-up on Edward Thomas, his poetry combined with the complexities of his nature, his kinship with Robert Frost and personal knowledge of London's vibrant contemporary literary scene make him a compelling subject. And so when I saw this book, I thought this is just up my street. in 1913 Edward Thomas set off from London to cycle to Salisbury, an expedition which he described as a search for Englishness even as that malleable stuff was in a state of flux. A century on and David Caddy sets off in Thomas's tracks but it quickly becomes clear that urban development has all but rendered the original route, if not impossible then certainly unappealing and such ersatz notions that I had of a repeat ride have been abandoned. But this author is made of sterner metal and off he goes but the connections with Edward Thomas are scarce and rather thin gruel. Thus Mr. Caddy segues into all manner of distractions and byways. Undoubtedly there are items of literary interest but little of it is new and the whole suffers from the dislocations of its meandering narrative, which taken with the grammatical errors really makes me wonder what the editor was doing, but its short. Students of asymmetry will be impressed by the contrast between the content and its promotional blurb! ( )