Wainwright on the Pennine Way - Hardcover

On 24  April 2015, it will have been exactly fifty years since a ceremony was held at Malham to mark the official opening of the Pennine Way Long Distance Footpath (now designated a National Trail), a trek of some 270 miles from Edale in Derbyshire’ s Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. There are now 15 National Trails of varying length but despite competition from younger upstarts, the pioneering Pennine Way retains its cachet of being the most challenging (and consequently most rewarding) expedition across vast tracts of Britain's untamed countryside.

The legendary fell-walker, writer and illustrator Alfred  Wainwright published his own inimitable step-by-step pocket guide to the Pennine Way in 1966 and in 1985 used that material as the basis for a collaboration with photographer Derry Brabbs:  Wainwright on the Pennine Way, an illustrated overview of the trail, which topped the Sunday Times best-seller list for several weeks. 

For this edition, published in a handsome  new large format, Wainwright's text has been revised and annotated to account for the changes in the route that have occurred in recent years, as well as the improvements to the terrain underfoot, in areas where flagstone paths now cover the boggy peat moors. In addition, Derry Brabbs has reshot the entire book specially with stunning year-round photography, to bring this classic fully up to date.

Wainwright on the Pennine Way brings together a writer and a photographer who have each been acclaimed for their artistry in recording the high places of Britain. This is  a ‘ must have’ memento or gift for anyone who has done the route or an aspirational reference work for armchair walkers content to let others do the legwork. 

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.

Derry Brabbs is regarded as one of England's finest photographers within the sphere of heritage and landscape, with over 20 illustrated books to his credit. His stunning colour photographs for the worldwide best-seller James Herriot's Yorkshire contributed to its success. He is the author of several beautifully photographed titles celebrating England's landscape and architectural legacy. Derry lives in Harrogate.

To visit Derry Brabbs' website click here