Alfred Wainwright

If you visit the Lake District you will soon come across the guides and sketchbooks of Alfred Wainwright. He began his work of sketching the fells and mountains of this area in the 1950s and his first guide to the Eastern fells was published in 1955. His last and seventh of the guides was published in 1966: the culmination of a 13 year plan.

The pen and ink drawings and the manuscript commentary are instantly recognisable to walkers and tourists generally in the Lakes and are found in most large bookshops in our major towns and cities.

His is a story of devotion, single-mindedness and perhaps even obsession. He was the borough treasurer at Kendal for much of the time in those long ago hand written ledger days. With his tea on the table when he came home, however the evenings that followed were free to be consumed by the writing of his guides after a weekend walking the fells.

His means of transport was the local bus and his ideal end to the day a meal of fish and chips eaten out of the pages of the local newspaper.

Wainwright grew up in Blackburn and moved (showing good sense!) to the Lake District in 1941. His first wife sadly appears to have been wholly excluded from his passion for the Fells and for that matter everything else except tending to his needs.

He did not set out on his work with the idea of making a fortune from his books and it was by no means certain that the first guide was going to be a success. And the royalties from them have largely gone to animal charities in Cumbria with perhaps the hint that AW found animals sometimes easier to cope with than human beings.

Teapot herself is no slouch with the pen and ink but sadly has so far been frustrated in completing her nineteen volume pictorial guide to the teashops of England by her commitment to making sure there is tea on the table (or in the microwave) for when Timelord comes home to the Tardis.