Alfred Wainwright - A Pictorial Guide to The Lakeland Fells
Alfred Wainwright’s pictoral guides are monumental. The levels of skill, patience, draftsmanship and devotion involved in each one of the set of seven books that have guided walkers round the cumbrian hills for over 50 years, is as earth shattering as the plate movements that created the very fells he wandered…
Born on 17 January 1907 in Blackburn, Lancashire, most of the local kids were obliged to work in the mills but Wainwright began his working career at the age of 13 as an office boy in Blackburn Borough Engineer’s Department. In 1930, he had saved enough money for a weeks holiday in the Lake District with his cousin. Together, they climbed Orrest Head in the far eastern hills and this was the point where Wainwright first set eyes on the Lakeland fells. It was the beginning of what he would later describe as his love affair with an area which he came to realise would transform his life course.
Wainwright began work on his pictoral guides on 9 November 1952. He proposed that the seven books which would map 214 fells of the Lakelands would take 13 years to complete at an average of one page each night, he ended up being out by 1 week! He planned to create these works for his own personal interest without the site of a publishing deal being his end goal. It seems at times that he had almost an obsession with non-publicity, his motivation coming instead from his own inner passion.
Each one of his guidebooks demonstrates a master class of design skill, beautiful and wonderfully ornate ink drawing, humour, honesty and simple intricacy. The main reason 2 million people have bought these guide books is probably that every single ingredient has been so lovingly created. Some say his guides contain too much philosophy about the lure of the fells, but to anyone who has stood on top of one of the many great Lakeland peaks, they will have discovered for themselves that the enticement is clear to see and that how Wainwright’s philosophy can ring true.
He died at the age of 84 a very private man, one who would go about his business without glamour or volume. It could be said, that Wainwright went about things the old fashioned way, but hey, who says things have to change?
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