Maryanne Traylen 
Ring of Downs 

‘Ring of Downs’ is a feast of lyrically evocative writings and atmospheric images inspired by a landscape-loving woman’s walks with her beloved dog through an extraordinary part of Kent’s North Downs.The places celebrated, from which these writings have drawn their inspiration, are on the North Downs Way path which forms an imperfect circle made up of two arcs. One meanders southeast through the Folkestone Downs along the coast to the White Cliffs of Dover. The other runs northeast through Canterbury. Yet this outer map corresponds to an inner one, a ‘mandala’, the perfect imaginative symbol of wholeness: as if tracks walked make patterns in our minds, words of wonder triggered by nature forging relationship between us and the land.This black and white edition of ‘Ring of Downs’ is the author’s sequel to ‘A Dog on the Downs’, to be followed by ‘Flights of Nature’ and ‘Light of Land’.