1. Leaving

**** This programme was suggested by Stephanie Rowlands as part of BBC Radio 4 Extra’s All Request Weekend. ****

One summer following the Second World War, 16 year old Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham mining village, desperate to see something of the world before he goes down the pit.

He sets off with a few basic provisions and no idea of where he'll end up...

As an old man, Robert looks back on the summer that changed the direction his life was to take, and the woman who opened his eyes to life's possibilities.

Novel written by Benjamin Myers, first published in 2019.

Abridged in ten parts by Sian Preece.

Read by Kevin Whately.

Benjamin Myers is an award-winning novelist, music journalist and landscape writer. His novel 'The Gallows Pole' received a Roger Deakin Award and won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction; 'Beastings' won the Portico Prize for Literature; and 'Pig Iron' won the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize.

Kevin Whately is well known for his TV roles in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and as Robert 'Robbie' Lewis in Inspector Morse and Lewis.

Produced at BBC Scotland by Sara Davies.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

**** To nominate a programme from the archives that you would like to hear again, please email radio4extra@bbc.co.uk and tell us why.****

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