"Walking is a rich tradition that has inspired writers such as Charles Dickens and Paul Auster, musicians like Bob Dylan, and moviemakers from Buster Keaton to Werner Herzog. And it has inspired Geoff Nicholson's studies of the walking world's obsessives and eccentrics, such as the artist Mudman, who coats his body in mud and then walks the city streets; competitive pedestrians such as Captain Barclay, who walked one mile an hour for a thousand consecutive hours; and gang members who use the hidden language of the scuffling "Crip Walk" to spell out messages in the dirt." Geoff Nicholson is a master chronicler of the hidden subversive twists on a seemingly normal activity. He finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or in the shape of a circle or a cross, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. Here he brings curiosity, imagination, and genuine insight to a subject that often strides, shuffles, struts, or lopes right by us.
