At the moment I am commuting between Nottingham and Manchester at least once a week. Although this is inconvenient and expensive, it does have the advantage that I am forced to sit and read for a minimum of four hours a week! It’s a good way of devouring those pesky one-week-loan library books.

But the reading has to stop while the train rattles along the Hope valley through the Pennines and I drink in the passing landscape, which is splendid even on days when the clouds crouch low on the hilltops. We’ve ambled along many of the muddy footpaths that either transect the railway or that can be seen snaking across fields and sneaking along hedgerows. I look forward to the next hike…