Chalk

Stretching from midwinter at Stonehenge to midsummer at the Sycamore Gap, journalist Peter Ross takes up the long human story as he visits the ancient places of the British Isles. From stones to shrines, through ritual and commemoration, what are we seeking when we connect with the past?

“The horse is magical… our ancestors are around us.”
Ross joins a party of volunteers keeping the Uffington White Horse sharp and defined, a job carried out by locals for centuries.

Read by Andy Clark
Written by Peter Ross
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

Peter Ross is an Orwell journalism fellow whose writing has appeared in national newspapers and magazines in the UK and US. He won the non-fiction prize at Scotland's National Book Awards with A Tomb With A View: The Stories & Glories of Graveyards, and his next book, Steeple Chasing, was a Sunday Times bestseller.