Having spent the last 18 months talking about taking The Riddle of the Sands for a walk, Lloyd and I thought we might give ourselves a break and take a couple of other books out into the field instead.

Today we consider ‘The Battle of Dorking’, an 1871 work of fiction that imagines how England might be invaded by the Germans (yes, we were worried about them way back then). The text suggests we take a train to beyond Dorking, hike up to Leith Hill and then take up a position on a ridge to the west of Dorking. When the Hun get the better of us, we then need to retreat to Leatherhead.

Tomorrow, we’ll be considering a very different, and more famous, example of ‘invasion literature’ – War of the Worlds by H G Wells. The books suggests that the Martians land on Horsell Common near Woking on a Friday in August. So we’ll be heading for that location for our start point. During the day we’ll hope to re-enact the destruction of Weybridge and, if we have the time and energy, the killing of the curate in Sheen.

As I’ve done with previous walks, I’ll post pics on Instagram, videos on Youtube, updates on Twitter. If there’s anything you’d like us to check out in Dorking, Woking, Weybridge and/or Sheen, let us know! Obviously we will have the Jeff Wayne soundtrack with us all the way.