After his walk from Hook of Holland to Istanbul, Jeremy Cameron was at something of a loose end. Various suggestions were made for his future, but they tended toward the dangerous, undignified or embarrassing. He resorted instead to the obvious solution of walking round all the places in England beginning with the letter Q. There are forty-five of them. The plan was to walk to a Q, return home then come back to the same spot and carry on. It might take a couple of years to reach them all. For a while all went well. Then, visiting the doctor for an ingrowing toenail, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. This was very inconvenient. A year or two later, his heart went wrong again as well. This further reduced his progress. When moral turpitude was added into the mix, he was down to a few miles per day. Confronted by risk-filled roads, steep hills, foul weather and an innate ability to get lost, Cameron persisted, ticking off the Qs from Cornwall to County Durham and everywhere in between. By the time he finished, he was five years older. This slowed him down even more. But he eventually reached Quaking Houses, the last of the forty-five, and now he is fulfilled, though still a grumpy old git. Quite Quintessential tells the story of a journey as epic as it was arbitrary and casts light on the strange world of obsessive walking.
