Highway Cello: An Evening with Kenneth Wilson

Tickets £10

This is a live, in-person event.

Location: The Edinburgh Bookshop, 219 Bruntsfield Place, EH10 4DH

Writer and cellist, Kenneth Wilson, joins us for an evening of music and travelling tales with Highway Cello - a travel book with a difference, about one man's bicycle journey, with a cello, from Hadrian's Wall to Rome, and the music and mishaps along the way.

About Highway Cello

The Highway Cello name began with a journey. In the summer of 2022 Kenneth Wilson cycled from Hadrian’s Wall to Rome (“from the edge of Empire to its heart”). He built a rack for the back of his old Dawes Galaxy bike, strapped his special carbon fibre cello to it, and set off.

It was quite an adventure – the length of England, through France and over the Alps to Italy, and Rome. Every day Kenneth played the cello, in scheduled and pop-up concerts, busking, and just responding to the moment.

“Highway Cello is an absolute charmer of a travel book – a personal journey that’ll keep you hooked until the very last page.” - Christi Daugherty, author of The Echo Killing and Night School.

“Original and engrossing, Kenneth Wilson has produced the most unique travel book of the year. You’ll be glad you went along for the ride.” - Jack Jewers, author of The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys.

About Kenneth

Kenneth Wilson plays the cello, writes poetry and sometimes rides a bike.

"When I perform I usually intersperse the music with short poetical responses. The music tells a story, or evokes emotion, which the poetry then explores, teases, reveals – or maybe subverts…"

Before Highway Cello, Kenneth had many careers. He ran a travel company called Soul of India Tours and led spiritual-interest group journeys in India, Nepal and Tibet. Then he formed a small property development company, and built some nice houses in London. Before that he was a Church of England Vicar. Now he lives in a treehouse in rural Cumbria, in the grounds of Ravenbridge Mill, swims in a very cold lake, and plants trees – when he's not playing the cello, that is.