Why do we need a guide book on the fells of the Lake District if Wainwright wrote seven of them?

Well, I should say right here that this book is not intended to replace Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides. They are superb books. But, they were written in the 1950s and 60s, and yes, some things in the hills have changed in the intervening years.

Another reason is that many walkers struggle to devise full-day walks using the Wainwright guide books. Yes, he has detailed pretty much every conceivable way of getting to each individual summit, but this leaves the reader having to then come up with their own plan to make a longer day of it by continuing over one or more other fells.

Wainwright didn’t describe day walks in these seven guidebooks. He described individual ways up and down each one. So, please buy the Wainwright guidebooks if you haven’t got them on your bookshelves already. Just use them alongside this book.

The author (proudly showing his book in the image)

Graham recently spent five years working for the Lake District National Park Authority as a Helvellyn Fell Top Assessor, and has also worked for a number of environmental charities as an ecological surveyor. He lives at the foot of Haweswater in the Lake District with his partner, Sharon Kennedy, and their dogs, Bob and Bert.