The Way of Saint James: a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela by James Bentley with photographs by John Miller (Pavilion, £14.99) Timothy Elphick FROM Paris, the ancient starting point of the medieval pilgrimage route of St James the Apostle, the author of this absorbing travelogue sets off across rural France and the wilds of northern Spain to discover the spirit of the road tramped by countless pilgrims' feet down the ages.
Bentley's path is crossed by goats in the tiny mountain hamlets of the Pyrenees, while further on the towers of Romanesque churches on the way lure him ever onwards towards his goal the cathedral shrine of Santiago which is said to have housed the relics of St James since their miraculous rediscovery in the ninth century.
The account is one of the most sympathetic to have been written about the camino to Santiago de Compostela in recent years.