Alfred Wainwright

Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the English Lake District. Among his 40-odd other books is the first guide to the Coast to Coast Walk, a 182-mile long-distance footpath devised by Wainwright which remains popular today.

Life

Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, into a family which was relatively poor, mostly because of his stonemason father's alcoholism. He did very well at school (first in nearly every subject) 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 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 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 for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and climbed the nearby Orrest Head, where Wainwright saw his first view of the Lakeland fells. This moment marked the start of what he later described as his love affair with the Lake District. In 1931 he married his first wife, Ruth Holden, a mill worker, with whom he had a son, Peter. In 1941 Wainwright moved closer to the fells when he took a job (and 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 left three weeks before he retired (suspecting him of infidelity) and they divorced. In 1970 he married Betty McNally (1922–2008), a divorcee, who became his walking companion and who carried his ashes to Innominate Tarn at the top of Haystacks.

Wainwright was a lifelong Blackburn Rovers fan and a founder member of the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Club. He had no time for organised religion, and was agnostic. On ''Desert Island Discs'', he described himself as having once been shy but having grown up to be antisocial and would avoid speaking to others, even lone walkers on fell tops.

Wainwright died in 1991 of a heart attack. According to his biographer, Hunter Davies, he left everything, including his house and royalty income, to Betty. His son Peter received nothing.

Pictorial Guides

Wainwright started work on the first page of his ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'' on 9 November 1952. He planned the precise scope and content of the seven volumes and worked conscientiously and meticulously on the series for the next 13 years at an average rate of one page per evening.

According to Wainwright, in his autobiography ''Fellwanderer'', he initially planned the series for his own interest rather than for publication. When he published his first book it was privately, as he could not face the prospect of finding a publisher. His friend Henry Marshall, Chief Librarian of Kendal and Westmorland, took charge of publicity and administration, and his name appears as publisher on the early impressions. Another friend, Sandy Hewitson (of Bateman and Hewitson Ltd), agreed to print the books using Wainwright's original manuscript, although the printing was done by the ''Westmorland Gazette'' in Kendal, who had taken over Bateman and Hewitson Ltd. From 1963, the ''Westmorland Gazette'' became his publisher, and its name appears on the first impressions of Books Six and Seven. Wainwright's books were in turn taken over by Michael Joseph in the 1990s. When they ceased publication in 2003, the rights were bought by Frances Lincoln.

Between 2005 and 2009, all the '' Pictorial Guides'' were updated for the first time, to take account of changed conditions on the fells. The revisions were made by Chris Jesty, and the publishers used an imitation font of Wainwright's hand lettering to make the alterations look as unobtrusive as possible. The most notable changes were the inclusion of photographs of the Lake District by Derry Brabbs on the front covers, rather than the drawings that were on the covers of the originals, and footpaths shown in red on the maps. These revised versions are titled 'Second Editions'. Revised editions of Wainwright's other ''Pictorial Guides'', '' A Coast to Coast Walk'', ''The Outlying Fells of Lakeland'', ''Pennine Way Companion'', ''Walks in Limestone Country'' and ''Walks on the Howgill Fells'' were published by Frances Lincoln between 2010 and 2014, with the amendments again being made by Chris Jesty.

The publishers announced in 2014 that Clive Hutchby, the author of ''The Wainwright Companion'', was working on the third edition of the ''Pictorial Guide'', with the first volume, ''The Eastern Fells'', published on 26 March 2015 followed by ''The Far Eastern Fells'' on 8 October 2015. These revised versions are titled 'Walkers Editions'. Subsequent volumes in the series to have been revised are ''The Central Fells'' (published 2016), ''The Southern Fells'' (2017), ''The Northern Fells'' (2018); ''The North Western Fells'' (2019); and ''The Western Fells'' (2020).

Later works

Wainwright followed the ''Pictorial Guides'' in 1968 with the ''Pennine Way Companion'', applying the same detailed approach to Britain's first long-distance footpath. This was for many years a leading guide to the Pennine Way, rivalling the official guide book by Tom Stephenson. Wainwright's book consists of a continuous strip map of the route with accompanying commentary, with an unusual quirk: because the route goes from south to north (bottom to top on a map), contrary to normal reading order, the map and commentary start at the bottom of the last page and work upwards and backwards towards the front of the book. The guide was prepared with the aid of four helpers (Harry Appleyard, Len Chadwick, Cyril Moore and Lawrence Smith) and its preparation was affected by the major outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in 1966 and 1967, which closed access to many of the moors.

In 1972 Wainwright devised the west–east Coast to Coast Walk, as an alternative to the north–south Pennine Way. The Coast to Coast, he declares in his guidebook, which follows the same format as the ''Pennine Way Companion'', "puts the Pennine Way to shame" for scenic beauty, variety and interest. The 190-mile route traverses the north of England from St. Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, passing through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors national parks.

''The Outlying Fells of Lakeland'' (an idea he had previously rejected), published in 1974, was his last major guidebook. Thereafter he concentrated on sketchbooks of larger-size line drawings until his eyesight began to fail in the mid-1980s. His ''Ex-Fellwanderer'', an autobiographical work published in 1987, was intended to be his last written work, but he continued to lend his name and some written commentary to a series of "coffee table books" featuring the photography of Derry Brabbs.

Television and radio

By the mid-1980s Wainwright was a TV personality; he featured in three television series for the BBC
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