Seaside Donkey : a Wayward Walk Around Wales

Book excerpt: Hannah has never owned a creature larger or more lively than a stick insect, which might explain why she thinks that roaming round the thousand-mile circumference of Wales with a donkey will be me meditative and tranquil. It won't be of course. Hannah is an optimist, but frightened of the dark, the quiet, and above all, the responsibility. Chico is keen and strong, but wholly untrained and deeply unconvinced about Hannah. And Wale's epic coast path has 410 stiles and 783 kissing gates, each one unnavigable to a donkey. Seaside Donkey is a funny, refreshingly unsentimental, and often alarming story about mismatched companions, and the power of being bold and living simply. Chico's charming presence serves to break down barriers, sometimes literally and it turns out that being tethered to a donkey yields a surprising wealth of unsolicited wisdom, sometimes painful and always profound.