Product Description

Alfred Wainwright's series of Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells are a legendary publishing achievement. Hand-written and initially self-published they have sold over a million copies and have introduced countless thousands to the pleasures and rewards of fell walking. Here Hunter Davies selects 18 favourite fells from the Pictorial Guides, introducing each with an anecdote or memory of Wainwright and an account of how the fell came to be chosen. This is the ideal book for a first-time visitor or walker, and it will reintroduce those already familiar with the series to forgotten pleasures, treasures and stories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5500 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 360 pages

About the Author
Born in Blackburn in 1907, Alfred Wainwright left school at the age of 13. A holiday at the age of 23 kindled a life-long love affair with the Lake District. Following a move to Kendal in 1941 he began to devote every spare moment he had to researching and compiling the original seven Pictorial Guides. He described these as his 'love letters' to the Lakeland Fells and at the end of the first, The Eastern Fells, he wrote about what the mountains had come to mean to him: I suppose it might be said, to add impressiveness to the whole thing, that this book has been twenty years in the making, for it is so long, and more, since I first came from a smoky mill-town (forgive me, Blackburn!) and beheld, from Orrest Head, a scene of great beauty, a fascinating paradise, Lakeland's mountains and trees and water. That was the first time I had looked upon beauty, or imagined it, even. Afterwards I went often, whenever I could, and always my eyes were lifted to the hills. I was to find then, and it has been so ever since, a spiritual and physical satisfaction in climbing mountains and a tranquil mind upon reaching their summits, as though I had escaped from the disappointments and unkindnesses of life and emerged above them into a new world, a better world. In due course I came to live within sight of the hills, and I was well content. If I could not be climbing, I was happy to sit idly and dream of them, serenely. Then came a restlessness and the feeling that it was not enough to take their gifts and do nothing in return. I must dedicate something of myself, the best part of me, to them. I started to write about them, and to draw pictures of them. Doing these things, I found they were still giving and I still receiving, for a great pleasure filled me when I was so engaged I had found a new way of escape to them and from all else less worth while. Thus it comes about that I have written this book. Not for material gain, welcome though that would be (you see I have not escaped entirely!); not for the benefit of my contemporaries, though if it brings them also to the hills I shall be well pleased; certainly not for posterity, about which I can work up no enthusiasm at all. No, this book has been written, carefully and with infinite patience, for my own pleasure and because it has seemed to bring the hills to my own fireside. If it has merit, it is because the hills have merit. A. Wainwright died in 1991 at the age of 84. Hunter Davies is the author of over 30 books, many of them with a Lake District connection, as well as biographies of Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and Eddie Stobart. His authorised biography of Wainwright appeared in 1995. He is married to the novelist and biographer Margaret Forster and they divide their time between London and their Lake District home in Loweswater.

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction to Wainwright
This is a charming (yet also practical) introduction to Wainwright's series of Lake District guides, being a very personal response by an obvious aficionado. Much of the book consists of excerpts from the works themselves, with Wainwright's maps and drawings; these are excellent in themselves, and well chosen - often, the selections are based on AW's own 'Top Fells' and 'Top Summits' (not necessarily the same). Davies contributes illuminating and perceptive introductions to the excerpts, highlighting what is so special about AW - the meticulousness, the jokes (even cartoons), the comprehensiveness. Although there have been changes to the Lake District since the books were originally written, the fells themselves are largely unchanged, and this remains a useful practical guide, if used with an up-to-date map. AW - for this reader, anyway - emerges from the book with reputation enhanced.

A non-walker
This is an absolute must-have if you have any interest walking. Even if you have no interest in walking you can't fail to be taken in by the consistently detailed drawings and conversational prose. Each and every page contains the most beautiful pen drawn maps, views and very accurate drawings of the Lakeland fells themselves. Further, Wainwright takes the reader through each fell climb in his own handwriting which, startlingly, justifies to both margins with not a hyphenated word in sight - a feat in itself which I've not seen elsewhere. Perhaps I'm impressed because I'm a graphic designer but I really don't see how anyone could be disappointed with this fascinating book.

Charming
I was staying in a hotel in the Lake District and happened to pick up a copy of this book that was sitting around, and after I was just a few pages in, I realised I was just going to have to get my own copy.
The book starts with a charming introduction and a fascinating short biography of Wainwright himself, giving you some insight into the sheer passion and commitment that he brought to his great project and some idea of his "reluctant celebrity". Each of the 18 selections then follows, from across the entire series as well as one selection from "The Outlying Fells", each accompanied by a little background (with illustrations from Wainwright's work) written by Hunter Davies, often very poignant, always very beautifully put.
The fells themselves are all reproduced in their entirety from the original books and are Orrest Head 1-4; Dove Crag 1-10; St Sunday Crag 1-10; Helvellyn 1-26; Hallin Fell 1-4; High Street 1-14; Eagle Crag 1-6; Helm Crag 1-10; Bowfell 1-20; Crinkle Crags 1-20; Scafell Pike 1-30; Blencathra 1-36; Skiddaw 1-28; Catbells 1-10; Grasmoor1-16; Great Gable 1-28; Pillar 1-18 and Haystacks 1-12
Hunter Davies, as Wainwright's official biographer, has done an excellent job in selecting his personal favourites - and it is his personal selection - from Wainwright's masterpiece, but also puts each of his selections in context with some insightful background to Wainwright's life at the time the ones chosen were being produced which makes them all the more fascinating. Each of the selections has been made with utter respect for the original material and rather than being some cheap "greatest hits" compilation actually makes me want to go and discover more about this man and the landscape he so obviously loved and read more of the books he produced so meticulously. You cannot help but be impressed by the hard work and dedication that was put in to the original works and the fact that the style he chose to create them in has managed to make them somehow timeless.
I was a complete novice when it came to the Wainwright books until I found this, but it is truly a labour of love by Mr Davies and I am a complete convert.