THE pokey upstairs room of the Old Crown pub in Digbeth was where writer and seasoned walker Christopher Somerville first heard the musical parable The January Man in 1980.

Those five poetic verses, performed at the time by Martin Carthy, left such a lasting impression on The Times writer that when he came to plan a book of walks around the British Isles he knew just the idea to hang it on.

The January Man – A Year of Walking Britain details a year on foot for Somerville and his wife Jane, and the seasonal treasures they uncovered as they charted their way around the country, month-by-month, celebrating the circle of man’s life and the cycle of the seasons.

On Monday evening he rounded off the first day of the Swindon Festival of Literature with a sold-out talk at Lower Shaw Farm’s ‘Cow Shed Theatre’ in which he spoke of the journeys that make up his latest book.

From visiting The Leigh and the River Severn in January, to a June visit to the Isle of Foula in the far North Atlantic and a December spent at Wiltshire’s Cley Hill, he reflects on the beauty of the British Isles and the people who make it their home.

“We wanted to spend as much time in as many places as we could and to try and describe what it is like to spend a year in Britain,” he told the assembled audience at Lower Shaw Farm.

“I wanted to try and capture each month in a particular place during a month that exemplifies that month – whether it is the lambs, the wildflowers or the fungi and make the reader feel as though they were coming along for the journey with us.”

Despite raising an eyebrow or two of surprise among the audience by revealing he prefers the company of his family during his walks rather than that of a dog (even though he gets down on his hands and knees to greet every hound he encounters) he revealed that muddy boots had played a huge part in bringing his family closer together across the generations.

The son of a naval officer who joined up at the age of 13, and then went on to work at GCHQ during the height of the Soviet Union’s power, Somerville discovered many years ago that walking was an incredible method for breaking down barriers.

“I got to know my dad through some of these long distance walks,” he said, reflecting on his years as an irksome teen.

“We could engage with each other in a way that as a teenager was otherwise impossible. That’s because when you are not sat facing each other, confrontationally, but walking side by side and just found I could get through to him.

“Of course, walking is also a fantastic way of rinsing out the brain. When I was a teacher it was fantastic to shout at the trees and go back with a clear head.”