Anita Sethi was on a journey through Northern England in Summer 2019 when she became the victim of a race hate crime. The crime was a vicious attack on her right to exist in a place on account of her race. After the event Anita experienced panic attacks and anxiety. A crushing sense of claustrophobia made her long for wide open spaces, to breathe deeply in the great outdoors. She was intent on not letting her experience stop her travelling freely and without fear. She was eager to continue journeying alone as a woman, asserting her right to exist.
One day Anita was looking at a map of the country and reflecting on that traumatic TransPennine journey. Between the route from Liverpool to Newcastle lays the Pennines, known as 'the backbone of Britain', including nature reserves, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Britain’s oldest long-distance footpath. That ‘backbone’ or ‘spine’ of Britain runs through the north and also strongly connects north with south, east with west – it’s a place of borderlands and limestone, of rivers and gorges and ‘scars’, of fells and forces. The Pennines called to Anita with a magnetic force; although a racist had told her to leave, she felt drawn to further explore the area she regards as her home, to immerse herself deeply in place. Anita’s journey through the natural landscapes of the North is one of reclamation, a way of saying that this is her land too and she belongs in the UK as a brown woman, as much as a white man does. Journeying through the Pennines, the 'backbone' of Britain, is a way of showing backbone and that she will not let having been the victim of a hate crime curtail her movements through the world.
We’re living in an era of increased hostility in which more people of colour around the world are being told to ‘go back’; strong statements of belonging are needed more than ever. Anita’s journey gives her the perspective to reflect upon the important issues encompassed in her experience of abuse including speaking out, gaslighting, trauma, kindness, and notions of strength. Her journey transforms what began as an ugly experience of hate into one offering hope and finding beauty after brutality; indeed, her travels enable her to bear exploring brutality and gives her the strength to lay it bare. The trajectory of Anita’s journey is upwards: literally rising up through the hills as she walks, and emotionally and psychologically rising up, up out of the pit of pain and despair, to embrace the possibility of hope.
Anita will transform her personal experience into one of universal resonance, offering a call to action, to keep walking onwards, forging a path through and beyond pain. Every footstep taken is an act of persistence. Every word written against the rising tide of hate speech, such as this book, is an act of resistance.
