We Are Pilgrims w/ Victoria Preston

Join Victoria Preston for a beguiling exploration of our primal urge towards journeys of purpose, wonder and self-discovery.

‘In a series of lively sketches, [Preston] shows that pilgrimage is intertwined with some very basic human impulses, from the seasonal migration of nomads, to the contemporary rite of passage of a teenager going to a music festival.’ — Times Literary Supplement

Each year, 200 million of us embark on a pilgrimage of some kind. We have been making ritual journeys for millennia, ever since our ancient ancestors followed migrating animals, coming together to hunt and celebrate. The era of setting out as a matter of survival is long gone, but the impulse to travel somewhere sacred to us remains.

Victoria Preston discovers that, whether we set forth in search of solace or liberation, as an expression of gratitude or faith, journeys of meaning and purpose are always a powerful reminder that we are each part of something much greater than ourselves.

From the Stone Age pilgrims of Anatolia to the present-day crowds at Glastonbury, We Are Pilgrims is a quest to understand what drives this rich and varied human behaviour, unbounded by time or space, faith or identity.

About the author

Victoria Preston has roamed far and wide in her thirty years advising corporate and government clients in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. She is an associate fellow at the King’s Centre for Strategic Communications, with an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.