Wainwright's Illustrated Walking Guide to the Lake District Book 1: The Eastern Fells

Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells #1

by Alfred Wainwright, Clive Hutchby

It is now sixty years since Alfred Wainwright published the first of the seven volumes that make up his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, detailing the 214 principal hills and mountains of the Lake District. Totalling more than 2,100 pages of meticulously hand-drawn and hand-lettered pages, the Pictorial Guides represent a "love letter" to a landscape that he had surveyed so definitively on foot and in ink. While the grandeur and poetry of the fells is unchanged since AW's day, the pace at which small changes may be encountered on the ground has never been greater. Walls, gates, stiles and fences are constantly being built, re-sited or removed altogether. Many paths have been obliterated, and new ones imprinted by the feet of countless hikers. Today's walkers need an up-to-the-minute guidebook to help them find the best routes to the summits, while avoiding potential hazards along the way. These new Walker's Editions of Wainwright's Pictorial Guides have been comprehensively revised and reissued - in a new, portable flexibound format - as practical and detailed guidebooks for visitors to the Lakeland fells. Every path, map, diagram and route description has been checked and corrected. These revisions have been undertaken by Wainwright expert Clive Hutchby, an international journalist and editor, and author of The Wainwright Companion. The Eastern Fells, the first of the new guidebooks, covers the area north of Ambleside, between Ullswater and Thirlmere, and includes the ascents of Helvellyn, Catstycam and Great Dodd.

Genres: Walking, Nonfiction, Travel, Reference, Nature, Geography, Outdoors

308 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2003

About the author

Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn, Lancashire to Thomas Wainwright and Elizabeth Nixon.[citation needed] His family was relatively poor, mostly due to his stonemason father's alcoholism. He did very well at school (first in nearly every subject)[1] although he left at the age of 13. While most of his classmates were obliged to find employment in the local mills, Wainwright started work as an office boy in Blackburn Borough Engineer's Department. He spent several further years studying at night school, gaining qualifications in accountancy which enabled him to further his career at Blackburn Borough Council. Even when a child Wainwright walked a great deal, up to 20 miles at a time; he also showed a great interest in drawing and cartography, producing his own maps of England and his local area.
In 1930, at the age of 23, Wainwright saved up enough money for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and climbed the nearby hill Orrest Head, where Wainwright saw his first view of the Lakeland fells. This moment marked the start of what he would later describe as his love affair with the Lake District. In 1931 he married his first wife, Ruth Holden, a local mill worker, with whom he had a son Peter. In 1941 Wainwright was able to move closer to the fells when he took a job (and with it a pay cut) at the Borough Treasurer's office in Kendal, Westmorland. He lived and worked in the town for the rest of his life, serving as Borough Treasurer from 1948 until he retired in 1967. His first marriage ended when Ruth walked out three weeks before he retired. They later divorced. In 1970 he married Betty McNally (1922–2008), also a divorcee, who became his walking companion and who eventually carried his ashes to Innominate Tarn at the top of Haystacks.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mountain autism

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

As i was reading this book,I was back in the Lake District seeing the mountains in my mind, I think I love them as much as Wainwright did, but haven't the skill to write a guide book; But it was wonderful to travel there again in my imagination, following the steps that Wainwright took :)

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me and a few friends have decided we want to climb all of the Wainwrights. We will go in the order of the books. We’ve climbed 22 of the 35 fells described in this book so far. This book is a must read when I’m planning my trips. I greatly recommend it.

[Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thing of rare beauty.