South Hams Gazette

The South Hams Gazette is the local newspaper serving Kingsbridge, the Devon town where Harold Fry and his wife Maureen have lived for decades. It is first mentioned as part of the familiar geography of Harold's daily life: its offices stand on Fore Street, among the closed-down Woolworths, the two butchers, the clock tower, and the Shambles, which Harold passes on his way out of town on the day he decides to walk to Berwick-upon-Tweed. In this early appearance, the newspaper is merely a landmark, a fixed point in the ordinary world that Harold is about to leave behind. Its later role, however, transforms it from a passive feature of the landscape into an active agent in the story, one that will reshape Harold's journey and the public's understanding of it.

The Story That Caught the Imagination

The Gazette's decisive intervention comes after Harold's story is first reported in the Coventry Telegraph. It had broken on a slack news day, and after being mentioned on a radio phone-in programme, it was taken up by several local newspapers. The South Hams Gazette gave it the front three pages, a prominence that proved pivotal. From there the story was reported in one or two of the nationals, and suddenly no one could get enough. Harold's walk became the theme of Thought for the Day on Radio 4, and spawned leading articles about the nature of the modern pilgrimage, quintessential England, and the pluck of the Saga generation. People talked about it in shops, playgrounds, parks, pubs, parties and offices. The story had caught the imagination, just as Mick had promised his editor it would, although as it spread its details began to shift and grow. Some people reported that Harold was in his early seventies, others that he had learning difficulties. Sightings were made of him in Cornwall and Inverness, as well as Kingston upon Thames and the Peak District.

The Newspaper's Impact on Maureen

The Gazette's coverage reaches Maureen directly and painfully. There was not a morning in Fossebridge Road that passed without event, and a handful of journalists waited on her crazy paving, with a local-television crew lodged beyond Rex's privet hedge. What shocked her most when she looked at Harold's photograph in the local paper was how changed he had become. It was just over six weeks since he had set out to post his letter but he looked unfeasibly tall, and at ease with himself. He still wore his waterproof jacket and tie, but his hair was tangled in a mop on top of his head, a mottled beard sprang from his chin, and his skin was so dark she had to keep staring at the photograph to find traces of the man she thought she knew. The image in the Gazette thus becomes a measure of the distance Harold has travelled, not just in miles but in identity, and a source of estrangement for the wife who no longer recognizes him.

The Commercialization of the Pilgrimage

The publicity that the Gazette helped generate creates the conditions for the commercialization of Harold's journey. Rich Lion, who has joined the pilgrimage and taken on a leadership role, informs the group that something was needed to distinguish the real pilgrims from their followers. He had been in touch with an old friend in PR, who owed him a favour. The friend in turn had contacted the distributors of a health drink and they would be delighted to provide all official walkers with T-shirts with the word PILGRIM on the front and back. The T-shirts would be available in white and come in three sizes. Kate scoffs at the impracticality, asking where they are going to wash these things, but Rich insists that white stands out and its image is pure. The episode shows how the media attention, first sparked by the Gazette, turns a private act of faith into a branded spectacle, a development that Harold himself rejects when he later removes the pilgrim T-shirt and slips it in a bin when no one was looking.

The Distortion of the Story

The Gazette's role in amplifying the story also contributes to its distortion. The splinter group that breaks away from Harold, led by Rich Lion, arrives in Berwick-upon-Tweed a week after the split, and their arrival is covered on the television news. Courtesy of BBC Spotlight, Maureen and Rex watched footage of Rich Lion and several others delivering flowers to the hospice along with a giant basket of muffins, although Queenie was unable to receive them. The reporter added that sadly no one from the hospice was available for comment. She stood with her microphone at the edge of the drive. Behind her there appeared to be a neatly kept garden, with blue hydrangeas, and a man in a boiler suit raking grass clippings. Maureen's reaction is one of disgust: 'Those people didn't even know Queenie. It makes me want to spit. Why couldn't they wait for Harold?' The newspaper's initial reporting, which made the story public, has thus led to a situation where the true pilgrim is overshadowed by impostors, and the meaning of the journey is co-opted by those who never knew the woman at its heart.

The Newspaper as a Symbol of the Public Gaze

The South Hams Gazette functions throughout the novel as a symbol of the public gaze that descends upon Harold's private pilgrimage. Its offices, first seen as a mere landmark on Fore Street, become the origin point of a media machine that Harold never sought and cannot control. The newspaper's coverage transforms him from an ordinary retired man into a figure of national fascination, yet it also strips the journey of its personal meaning, replacing it with headlines, sightings, and speculation. The Gazette thus embodies the tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary that runs through the novel: the same local paper that once sat quietly among the shops of Kingsbridge becomes the instrument by which Harold's walk is lifted out of the ordinary world and into the realm of myth, for better and for worse.