At the heart of this book is a highway. The A1; The Great North Road. A 400-mile multiplicity of ancient trackway, Roman road, pilgrim path, coach route and motorway that has run like a backbone through Britain for the last 2,000 years.

In this genre-defying and profoundly personal book, Cowen follows this ghost road from beginning to end on a journey through history, place, people and time. Weaving his own histories and memories with the layered landscapes he moves through, this is the story of an age, of coming to terms with time past and time passing, and the roads that lead us to where we find ourselves.

Written in kaleidoscopic prose, The North Road is an unforgettable exploration of Britain’s great highway.

‘Radical and beautiful. Haunted and haunting: Cowen tracks the London-Edinburgh highway […] A dazzlingly inventive work of literature.’ Robert Macfarlane

‘This thought-provoking and beautiful exploration of that most humanised of spaces, the road, shows how our lives are always intimately bound to those of others within the social landscape. Through sharing and celebrating this common journey, Cowen manages to demonstrate the wonder of what it is to be alive. This is a book that will have your heart ringing like a bell.’ Matt Gaw

‘A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip.’ Melissa Harrison

‘Rob Cowen’s account of a journey on foot fragments – startlingly – into history, fiction, philosophical enquiry and fearless memoir. A beautifully woven and mesmerising book.’ Tom Bullough

‘Stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one. He’s a magician whose brilliance lies not in trickery, but in real talent and a wild, untamed imagination that’s capable of transcending time.’ – Benjamin Myers

‘With his singular blend of research, personal exploration and intensely visceral storytelling, Rob Cowen is truly in a class of his own’ – Amy-Jane Beer

‘Rob Cowen weighs up the mighty A1 from the hard-packed solum beneath its pitch to the aerial maps by which so many steer its course. A deep time hymn to a mercurial trunk route that’s beckoned, blistered and borne travellers for centuries unknown, The North Road is by turns brilliant, questing and poignant. Equal parts ardent asphalt anthem and song to belonging, Cowen’s new book is a north/south tour de force.’ Dan Richards