Well known for her marathon bicycle rides along the Himalayas, to Jerusalem and down the Nile, Bettina Selby decided, in the summer of 1988, to explore England. Carrying with her a tent, a sleeping bag and as little as she needed for the outdoor life, she left London. Her outward journey took her through the Cotswolds, the Welsh Borders, Staffordshire and the Peak District: but the purpose of her journey was to explore the North - the country of St Cuthbert and Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and the Venerable Bede - and it was in the Lake District, along Hadrian's Wall, in Lindisfarne and in Durham that she found the unchanging England of her memories; the England, too, of Sellafield and Teesside and a thousand exhaust fumes shimmering in the mountain air.