We live in disturbed times. Seemingly more now than at any time in the previous five decades, the planet appears riven. Against this troubling global background, An Impossible Dream traces author Peter Campbells six-week, eight-hundred-kilometre long walk along the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain, capturing what he saw and what he felt during the journey.

Using the Camino as a backdrop, Campbell looks back at the cultural and religious conflicts of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, and he reflects on the history of the Crusades, the Knights Templar, the legendary El Cid, and much more, drawing comparisons between now and times past.

Through vivid descriptions and introspective reflection, An Impossible Dream portrays the physical, emotional, and psychological challenges Campbell faced as he undertook this epic walk, the relationships formed along the way, and the spiritual questions asked and answered. He considers his own conflicts and intolerances, and he offers an insightful reminder for anyone who has already walked the Camino, and a fascinating perspective for those who have yet to undertake that journey. He tells a story of a walk through lifea life lived, questions asked, and lessons learned.

Recent years have seen the increasing valuation and promotion of ‘creativity’. Future success, we are often assured, will rest on the creativity of our endeavours, often aligned specifically with ‘cultural’ activity. This book considers the emergence and persistence of this pattern, particularly with regards to cultural policy, and examines the methods and evidence deployed to make the case for art, culture and the creative industries. The origins of current practices are considered, as is the gradual accretion of a broad range of meanings around the term ‘creative’, and the implications this has for the success of the wider ‘Creativity Agenda’. The specific experience of the city of Liverpool in adopting and furthering this agenda both in the UK and beyond is considered, as is the persistence of a range of problematic, and often contradictory, assumptions and practices relating to this agenda up to the present day.

We live in disturbed times. Seemingly more now than at any time in the previous five decades, the planet appears riven. Against this troubling global background, An Impossible Dream traces author Peter Campbells six-week, eight-hundred-kilometre long walk along the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain, capturing what he saw and what he felt during the journey.

Using the Camino as a backdrop, Campbell looks back at the cultural and religious conflicts of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, and he reflects on the history of the Crusades, the Knights Templar, the legendary El Cid, and much more, drawing comparisons between now and times past.

Through vivid descriptions and introspective reflection, An Impossible Dream portrays the physical, emotional, and psychological challenges Campbell faced as he undertook this epic walk, the relationships formed along the way, and the spiritual questions asked and answered. He considers his own conflicts and intolerances, and he offers an insightful reminder for anyone who has already walked the Camino, and a fascinating perspective for those who have yet to undertake that journey. He tells a story of a walk through lifea life lived, questions asked, and lessons learned.

Recent years have seen the increasing valuation and promotion of ‘creativity’. Future success, we are often assured, will rest on the creativity of our endeavours, often aligned specifically with ‘cultural’ activity. This book considers the emergence and persistence of this pattern, particularly with regards to cultural policy, and examines the methods and evidence deployed to make the case for art, culture and the creative industries. The origins of current practices are considered, as is the gradual accretion of a broad range of meanings around the term ‘creative’, and the implications this has for the success of the wider ‘Creativity Agenda’. The specific experience of the city of Liverpool in adopting and furthering this agenda both in the UK and beyond is considered, as is the persistence of a range of problematic, and often contradictory, assumptions and practices relating to this agenda up to the present day.