Hutchinson Heinemann snaps up Cowen's 'ground-breaking' road journey

Hutchinson Heinemann has signed a “ground-breaking” work of non-fiction from award-winning nature writer Rob Cowen.

Editor Zennor Compton acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a deal struck with Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates.  

The publisher said: “Road, which will be published in 2025, is the epic and haunting story of Cowen’s journey by foot along the A1, The Great North Road, from its beginning to its end. As Cowen travels its route, which encompasses the high streets of rural Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire as well as the metropolitan centres of London, York and Edinburgh, the road reveals itself to be more than it seems. This ancient, shape-shifting 400-mile highway is also a seam of collective consciousness and repository of memory far deeper than it is wide.”  

Hutchinson Heinemann said it promises to be “a genre-defying book that blends memoir, history, fiction and short-story". It tells the histories and stories of The Great North Road from Robin Hood to Margaret Thatcher, the Civil War to the Peasant’s Revolt, revealing themes that echo from its Roman origins through to the present.

“It also tracks the author’s past, the paths not taken, crossed destinies, coincidences and collisions, including the discovery of his own serendipitous family connections with the road,” the publisher said. “Road is a book about time, place, history, memory and country; it is also a book of profound personal revelation written in dazzling and raw prose.” 

Cowen’s 2012 debut Skimming Stones and Other Ways of Being in the Wild (Coronet) won the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors. His second book, Common Ground (Hutchinson) was shortlisted for the Wainwright, Portico and Richard Jefferies Society prizes. 

Cowen said: “I'm delighted that Road has found its home with the same team that helped Common Ground find its audience. This is a book that is taking me places I've never been before, in every sense. The road’s story is intertwined in everything; its size, scale and influence is huge, endlessly fascinating and largely overlooked. Following this timeline on foot and in the mind has proved an act of personal exploration, surfacing memories and moments that have challenged me and altered me in ways I never expected. One thing I’ve come to learn is that when you follow this road you never look at the country or yourself in the same way again. And I’m really excited about taking readers on that journey.” 

Compton commented: “Hutchinson Heinemann is honoured to publish Rob Cowen, whose award-winning non-fiction work Common Ground marked him as a pioneering writer about people and place. I have long admired Rob’s prose and poetry, and I am privileged to be taking up the reins to work with him on Road.”