Pilgrimage : A Tour of Northumberland in Pictures and Poems

Stan Beckensall has had over 40 books published, including many on his adopted county, Northumberland.

He has explored the history and landscape, the latter from the air as well as the ground; his 17 million hits on the Newcastle University website shows the interest of over 100 countries in his work on the county's prehistoric rock-art, and his work in general has received many honours.

His interest in and love of Northumberland is expressed here in his poetry, which takes the pattern of a pilgrimage around the county, In his long teaching career his main subject has been English literature, so poetry is something that he has always enjoyed.

Two local TV programmes on The Power of Place and on the Prehistoric Rock Art of Northumberland are two of his public appearances; others include a programme on Hexham's Festival of the Arts on a Margret Howard Classic FM show, in which he read one of his poems and talked with her about the town.

This collection is intended for a large audience. As Kim Cowie says in her introduction: "it is a book to capture what it feels like to belong a place."