Clara’s Verdict
There are travel books, and then there are books that make you feel the peculiar ache of a country you’ve never visited but somehow already love. Dom Joly’s The Downhill Hiking Club belongs firmly in the second category. Born in Beirut, schooled in England, now fifty and reckoning with everything in between – Joly sets off on Lebanon’s Mountain Trail and the result is genuinely moving. What begins as a bloke’s mid-life hiking adventure quietly reveals itself as a meditation on identity, memory, and a country the Western press has never quite known what to do with. I’ve read a great deal of travel writing over the years, and this one lodged somewhere deep.
About the Audiobook
Dom Joly spent his early years in Beirut, living through the Lebanese Civil War, attending school alongside Osama Bin Laden (he mentions this so casually it takes a moment to land), skiing in the mountains, learning Arabic and French – then being shipped off to an English boarding school every term. That schizophrenic childhood, as he calls it, forms the emotional backbone of this book.
The premise is deceptively simple: on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday, Joly decides to hike the Lebanon Mountain Trail – a 440-kilometre route running from the Syrian border in the north to the Israeli border in the south, taking roughly thirty days on foot. He invites two friends, neither especially prepared, and they set off.
What unfolds is equal parts comedy and elegy. The trio are terrible hikers – that’s rather the point – but the landscape they pass through is extraordinary: cedar forests, ancient ruins, snow-capped ridges, villages that have survived centuries of violence and still manage to serve excellent hummus. Joly writes about Lebanon with the tender exasperation of someone who has never quite stopped calling it home, and the book’s treatment of the country’s geopolitical complexity – sandwiched between Syria and Israel, historically buffeted by every major power in the region – is surprisingly nuanced for something that also contains extended riffs about blisters.
At just over eight hours, this audiobook is the perfect length for a long journey. It’s funny, heartfelt, and genuinely illuminating about a corner of the world most British listeners will know only from news bulletins.
The Narration
Joly reads his own book, and this is absolutely the right decision. The material is so personal – so rooted in his specific, peculiar history – that any other voice would feel like a poor translation. He has a dry, self-deprecating delivery that suits the humour perfectly, and when the tone shifts to something more tender, it’s all the more effective for not being performed. You feel as though you’re hearing him think aloud, which is exactly what the best travel memoir narration should achieve. At eight hours and nine minutes, the pacing is easy and the voice never tires.
What Readers Say
The audiobook holds a 4.4-star rating from 464 listeners, and the reviews paint a consistent picture. Readers who have their own connections to Lebanon – whether through heritage, work, or previous travel – describe it as both accurate and deeply felt. One reviewer from the UK called it “a love letter to Lebanon” and noted it made them laugh out loud; another, also with Beirut roots, wrote that it brought their own childhood flooding back, praising Joly’s compassion and insight into “the complexities and contradictions of life in this ill-fated yet resilient country.” Even those less personally invested find it a transporting read, with one reviewer noting they felt genuinely present in Beirut’s streets and the cedar forests of El Chouf. The few dissenting voices flag some repetition and the occasional indulgence of the “public school boy humour,” which is a fair caveat – those expecting a straight travelogue may find certain tangents trying. But the majority agree this is Joly at his most honest and most affecting.
Who Should Listen?
This one is for anyone who loves travel writing that actually teaches you something – not just about a place, but about the person telling the story. If you’ve enjoyed Bill Bryson’s warmth without the occasional smugness, or you like your adventures laced with genuine history, The Downhill Hiking Club will reward you. It’s also an ideal listen for anyone curious about Lebanon, the Middle East, or simply what it means to return somewhere you’ve spent a lifetime half-forgetting. Fans of Joly’s television work should note that this is a more considered, more personal book than his earlier travel writing.
Available now on Audible UK – listen to The Downhill Hiking Club by Dom Joly.
