This is the Camino book I have been wanting - but didn’t know it.

I have looked for a book on the Camino for some time and listened to a few. Others I rejected due to being egocentric and just shallow and immature. I then saw this book and decided to buy it. Well, it was a revelation. The author’s kindly voice narrating the most beautifully sensitive prose. This book isn’t primarily about the author -: a rarity these days - but about what it should be, namely the sights and people she encounters, described in such vivid detail and sensitivity. I loved every sentence of this book.

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If you only read one book about the Camino………

First published in 1987, ‘A Hug for the Apostle - A journey to Santiago’ by Laurie Dennett, was re-issued in 2019 with additional narrative bringing the Camino story up to date. Among the wealth of Camino literature, this memoir is unique.
In 1985 Laurie was living in London, working as a corporate historian, when she found herself redundant. In Canada, her mother was deteriorating from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). These events drove Laurie to fulfil a long-held dream to undertake the pilgrimage to Santiago, simultaneously using the journey to raise funds for the Canadian MS Society.
Then, the Camino was not the well-known force for walking and tourism it is today. It was not yet a designated Cultural Route of Europe, nor a UNESCO world heritage site. MS was little understood. Long-distance fundraising hikes and celebrity travel programmes were not yet a ‘thing’. Only a few hundred religious pilgrims yearly undertook the arduous and lonely trek across northern Spain.
Laurie’s 500-page account of her solo journey takes the reader from connection-building with the MS Society and the infant Confraternity of St James, through hard weeks of continual rain as she walks from Chartres through France in early Spring, climbs up through the Pyrenees, crosses the Meseta Central under a merciless sun and, after 1600 kilometres and 52 days, descends to the northwest coast and her destination - the shrine of the apostle in the Cathedral of St James. It is a mighty test of determination and courage as she trudges along, belongings on her back, only an ancient guidebook in hand, sleeping where she can - on church floors on occasion - encountering difficulties and hostility but, more often, heart-warming kindness and friendship. Through every hardship she just keeps on, using spiritual unfolding to meet her difficulties and to raise awareness of and funds for MS.
Laurie is now celebrated as one of the founders of the modern Camino. In O Cebreiro, at the pinnacle of the route, she befriends Don Elias, a Spanish priest who has made it his life’s work to revive interest in the Way. Ill, with not long to live, he engages Laurie as his translator and assistant and extracts her promise to see his guidebook for modern pilgrims through to publication.
In the re-issue, Laurie notes her experiences cannot be had today, although the blessings of the pilgrim mindset and the beauty of the landscape persist. After her walk, she became Chair of the Confraternity in the UK for many years, a period of growth. In 2010 she went to live in a tiny hamlet near O Cebreiro. From there, she continues to support the work of the Camino, to help pilgrims and to write. Two years ago, as its centenary preparations got under way, Santiago chose ten ‘Stars of the Camino’ to have their portraits emblazoned on buildings leading into the City. Laurie was one.
Laurie’s writing talent sets this book alight. With deft economy she describes her privations, the challenges (particularly of making weekly phone calls to Canada Radio from ill connected villages), the magic she encounters and the deep history of the Way. This book is worth listening to for its historical place in the story of the Camino. The precision of the prose and meticulous history-telling make it a delight. As an added bonus, Laurie is narrating. With her soft but precise voice, you walk alongside her and feel blessed in her company.

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