As dusk falls over west London, the night reveals a spectrum of blues that challenges common perceptions of darkness. This subtle shift in color—from the fading light’s milky grey-blue to the deep indigos and purples of night—frames a unique experience explored in a new anthology edited by Duncan Minshull. The collection, titled *The Indigo Hours*, gathers writings on night walking from various authors spanning the 1600s to the present, bringing together essays, journals, travelogues, and letters that capture the distinct atmosphere and sensations of nocturnal journeys.
Minshull, an experienced writer and anthologist focused on walking, chose a familiar route along the Thames Path for an evening stroll. Setting out near Hammersmith Bridge toward Chiswick, the walk highlights a quiet, historic riverside landscape marked by Georgian houses, rose gardens, poplars, and occasional pubs. The river’s edge here is largely unembanked, allowing the water to meet the path directly, while houseboats and rowing crews add to the twilight scene. This stretch of the Thames presents a softer, gentler image compared to historical descriptions of the river’s darker, grimmer character.
The anthology offers a broad range of perspectives on night walking. From Charles Dickens, who roamed London’s streets at night to alleviate insomnia while encountering the homeless, to John Brown, an escaped enslaved man who used night walking as a survival tactic, the collection reflects both practical and poetic dimensions. It includes more contemporary narratives as well—a notable example being Annabel Abbs’ reflections on walking in an American city, and extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth’s diaries capturing moonlit landscapes. The anthology also touches on unusual and eerie encounters, such as a 1981 US Air Force UFO report, though supernatural themes tend to be viewed with skepticism.
Minshull underscores the transformative quality of night walking, quoting Henry David Thoreau’s 1863 observation that night is “a very different season.” The sensory experience changes as vision dims and other senses heighten. Virginia Woolf’s 1905 account describes a dissociation between body and mind, accompanied by a profound reordering of perception under the night sky. Practical considerations also feature, with writers noting how darkness alters spatial awareness, as exemplified by Leigh Hunt’s humorous misstep mistaking mud.
Safety concerns arise frequently in discussions about night walks, especially among women. The anthology includes reflections on fear and caution, from Kate Pullinger’s acknowledgment of social conditioning around women’s anxiety walking alone at night, to Mary Morris’ stark account of vulnerability on a remote trail. While historical texts mention dangers such as thieves or aggressive street children, Minshull clarifies that his selection focuses more on the literary and reflective than on immediate contemporary threats. Along the Thames Path, the most notable hazard encountered during the evening walk was the sudden appearance of e-bikes.
The anthology also considers the theatrical and emotional aspects of night walking. Writers like Edith Wharton and Woolf describe the ways darkness and lamplight encourage a release from daytime identities, rendering urban scenes as stages where people perform different roles, often more openly or dreamily. Robert Louis Stevenson’s preference for the warm glow of gas lamps over harsh electric light is highlighted as a metaphor for the softer, more intimate nocturnal world favored by many night walkers.
As the Thames Path walk continued into full darkness, ambient light from planes approaching Heathrow punctuated the sky, blending natural and modern elements. Minshull reflects on how these layers of history and modernity coexist in the night landscape, suggesting that contemporary walkers may need to learn to appreciate all aspects of the evolving nocturnal environment. In its diverse voices and experiences, *The Indigo Hours* presents night walking as a richly textured mode of engagement with the world, one that awakens senses, memory, and imagination in equal measure.