Travel writer Christopher Somerville picks his favourite holiday destination

WALKING’S in the blood for Christopher Somerville.

The Gloucestershire-born travel writer has covered the length and breadth of the country by foot.

Best Wild Places is just one of his many books, with newly-published Britain’s Best Walks (Collins £30) his latest.

Christopher and his wife, who have four grown-up kids, live in Bristol.

MY favourite place in Britain would have to be Northumberland.

It’s wonderful for many reasons, just one being that you can be “abroad” just by hopping over the fence at Windy Gyle and setting foot in Scotland.

If you walk the Pennine Way, the last day from England into Scotland runs right along that fence.

At one point there’s a stile and you can stand with one foot on each side and be lord of both countries.

I studied at Durham University so I was well aware of Northumberland, but it was probably about 40 years ago when I really visited and started exploring.

One of the nice things is the wonderful Cheviot Hills. For a walker they call to you as being high country but they’re not so difficult that you feel daunted.

With some of the Scottish mountains you can see, they’re very beautiful but you fear you couldn’t possibly get up there.

The Cheviots are criss-crossed with ancient trackways, rogues’ paths and smugglers’ lanes, all of which cross the Border at some point.

And I love Holy Island where you walk across the sands on the Pilgrims’ Path, following the poles and watching the tides of course.

It’s a very other-worldly place.

For such a long time, walking has been a huge part of any holiday, but I’ve also learned in the last few years that it’s also nice to kick back and do nothing at all.

And for that I’d choose Crete. In 1999 I walked the island from end to end for a book, some 300 miles across the mountains.

In those mountains you see a way of life that’s pretty much vanished all over the rest of the Mediterranean.

A friend runs a taverna in a little village called Thronos.

My wife says the best meal she’s ever eaten was there and I’d have to agree.

And when you wake up in the morning and step on to your balcony you see a 10-mile view in front of you, right down the valley.