Jenn Ashworth - The Parallel Path | Wednesday 17 September, 6.30pm

The Parallel Path is a memoir of walking the Coast to Coast path - and a lesson in caring: for oneself and for others. At this event, Jenn will be in conversation with Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater and Milk Teeth.

PRE-ORDER your copy of The Parallel Path (published 17 July 2025) here.

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Whether it's strange and haunted novels that linger long after the last page has been turned, utterly unnerving short stories or brave memoir excursions in which her own life is laid bare, whatever Jenn Ashworth turns her hand to, I'm there to read it - Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy and The Offing

Jenn Ashworth is the author of the novels A Kind of Intimacy, which won a Betty Trask Award, Cold Light, The Friday Gospels, Fell and Ghosted: A Love Story, which was shortlisted for the Portico Prize. She has also written a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. She lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.

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Burnt out and longing for an escape, Jenn Ashworth emerged from lockdown with a compulsive need to walk - and to walk away. Armed with little more than the knowledge imparted by a two-day orienteering course and a set of maps, she embarked on the most epic of English walks: Wainwright's Coast to Coast. Guided not just by Wainwright's writing but also by daily letters from her friend Clive - facing an epic journey of his own - Jenn's pilgrimage soon becomes more than just walking: a chance to reconnect and excavate, to re-engage with the act of caring for others and for oneself.

But the walk's tricky terrain is not the only thing standing in Jenn's way. As days go by, her balance begins to fail her and the act of putting one foot in front the other becomes a new exercise in caution. When a vicious heatwave forces her to pause her expedition and gives her an opportunity to investigate the new limitations of her body, Jenn is confronted with a life-altering diagnosis - and a new path of self-discovery.