Rob Cowen talks to Phoebe Smith

Take a trip along the A1 (no traffic, guaranteed) and learn about the history and mystery of the Great North Road, a 400-mile route that has run through Britain for the last 2,000 years. Writer and author Rob Cowen follows this road – throughout history an ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway – and takes a journey through history, place, people and time in his new book The North Road.

In conversation with Phoebe Smith, journalist and author of Wayfarer, he describes journeying along the Great North Road, and weaving his own histories and memories with the landscapes he moved through. Cowen writes on nature, place and people. His first book, Skimming Stones, won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors.