The Only Way is Up
The Only Way is Up: On Foot to Rome is a memoir of long-distance walking, but it is also a meditation on how we move forward when life asks us to begin again.
Setting out from Canterbury and walking some 2,400km to Rome along the Via Francigena, Jennifer Andrewes undertakes a modern pilgrimage across England, France, Switzerland and Italy. What begins as a physical journey soon becomes something deeper: an exploration of momentum, mindset, and the quiet power of putting one foot in front of the other when the way ahead is uncertain.
Structured as a series of daily stages, the book follows the rhythms of pilgrimage life – early starts, long days on the road, chance encounters, moments of solitude, and the simple rituals that sustain a walker: coffee stops, conversations, rest, reflection.
Along the way, Jennifer meets fellow pilgrims from around the world, navigates doubt and discomfort, and learns to trust the unfolding path rather than trying to control the outcome.
While written through the lens of walking to Rome, The Only Way is Up speaks to anyone standing at a crossroads. It offers pilgrimage not as an escape from real life, but as a practical framework for living well: shedding excess weight – physical and metaphorical – building resilience, cultivating presence, and finding meaning through steady forward movement.
The journey reveals how momentum can transform thinking, restore confidence, and open new possibilities.
The author’s experience living with Parkinson’s is part of the landscape, but it does not dominate the narrative. Instead, it quietly sharpens the book’s central insight: that while we cannot always change our circumstances, we can change how we meet them. Pilgrimage becomes a way of training response – choosing movement over stagnation, curiosity over fear.
For readers considering a camino or long walk, the book offers an honest, grounded portrait of life on the trail. For others, it provides something broader: reassurance that clarity often comes through motion, that the path reveals itself step by step, and that sometimes the only way forward – in walking and in life – is onwards and upwards.
