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.” (Quote courtesy of Amazon.)

Between 1952 and 1966, Alfred Wainwright combed 214 Lake District summits to devise seven unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells with all the instructions carefully printed in long-hand and the topography superbly hand-drawn.

I watched the BBC program called “Wainwright Walks” last  summer with Julia Bradbury doing the walking.  Usually I don’t find these programs very interesting, even though I do a lot of walking, but the views were astonishing and Julia Bradbury’s enthusiasm combined with the voice of Alfred Wainwright, provided by Nik Wood-Jones, bowled me over.

Now we can all explore some of the Lakeland’s finest fells in the company of the one and only Alfred Wainwright with a handy volume of eight walks in a spiral bound book containing original Wainwright text and maps, plus lots of practical information and including introductions to each walk by Eric Robson.  The best bit though is a free CD with a commentary narrated by Nik Wood-Jones that you can download onto your iPod.  The fells included in this volume are Catbells, Coniston Old Man, Haystacks, Helm Crag, Latrigg, Nab Scar, Orrest Head and Place Fell.

Each fell walk has a file size of about 5Meg and as an example of how it works this is how the Helm Crag walk comes across;

• The route has been broken down into 10 short instructions of no more than a paragraph in length. You listen to these and then follow them. They include reference points you will see on the actual walk although you should take the spiral bound book with you as a reference and a map if you are unfamiliar with the area. You must make all the necessary precautions given at the start of the podcast.
• After some of the formal instructions, there will follow a reading of an actual Wainwright observation as it appears in the book.
• When you hear the sound footsteps this is the cue to pause your iPod and walk to the next landmark that “Wainwright” has instructed.

The instructions contained in the podcast last about 15 mins but the actual walk is around 1.5 miles and has an ascent of 1100ft and will probably take a good 2 hours.  The podcast follows this format:

• From the beginning: Some safety advice
• Instruction 1: START OF THE WALK
• Instruction 2: AT THE SIGN FOR BUTHARLYP HOWE
• Instruction 3: AT THE BRIDGE OPPOSITE OAK LODGE B&B
• Instruction 4: AT LITTLE PARROCK HOUSE
• Instruction 5: AT THE YELLOW SIGN FOR HELM CRAG
• Instruction 6: AT THE WOODEN, FENCED PLATFORM
• Instruction 7: AT THE UNSPECIFIED VIEWPOINT
• Instruction 8: FROM THE FIRST BIG CAIRN
• Instruction 9: FROM THE VIEWPOINT
• Instruction 10: FROM THE LION

You can buy Wainwright The Podcasts from all good bookshops and I suggest that it’s something that needs to sit dormant in the Motorhome, ready for when you decide to visit the Lake District.  Better to have it sat in the cupboard for a while rather that get there and realise you’ve forgotten to buy it, or worse still that you’ve bought it but left it at home; one of my tricks that one.