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Автор Richard Holmes
FOOTSTEPS
ADVENTURES OF A
ROMANTIC BIOGRAPHER
RICHARD HOLMES
HARPER PERENNIAL London, New York, Toronto and Sydney
Harper Perennial
An imprint of HarperCollins
This edition published by Harper Perennial 2005
First published by Hodder & Stoughton 1985
Copyright © Richard Holmes 1985
Richard Holmes asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007388547
Version: 2018-05-21
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For Vicki and those children
All that night I heard footsteps: down by the river through the dark trees, or up on the moonlit road from Le Puy to Le Monastier. But I saw nothing except the stars, hanging over me where I wanted to be, with my head on a rucksack, and my rucksack on the grass, lying alone somewhere in the Massif Central of France, dreaming of the dead coming back to life again. I was eighteen.
I had started a travel-diary, teaching myself to write, and trying to find out what was happening to me, what I was feeling.
I kept it simple:Found a wide soft dry ditch under thorn hedge between the track and the little Loire. Here lit candle once more, studied ground for red ants, then set out bed-roll with all spare clothes between me and my waterproof cloak-sheet. Soon I was gazing up at stars, thinking of all the beats and tramps and travellers
