On 24 April 2015, it will have been exactly fifty years since a ceremony was held at Malham to mark the official opening of the Pennine Way Long Distance Footpath (now designated a National Trail), a trek of some 270 miles from Edale in Derbyshire’s Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders. There are now 15 National Trails of varying length but despite competition from younger upstarts, the pioneering Pennine Way retains its cachet of being the most challenging (and consequently most rewarding) expedition across vast tracts of Britain's untamed countryside. The legendary fell-walker, writer and illustrator Alfred Wainwright published his own inimitable step-by-step pocket guide to the Pennine Way in 1966 and in 1985 used that material as the basis for a collaboration with photographer Derry Brabbs: Wainwright on the Pennine Way, an illustrated overview of the trail, which topped the Sunday Times best-seller list for several weeks. For this edition, published in a handsome new large format, Wainwright's text has been revised and annotated to account for the changes in the route that have occurred in recent years, as well as the improvements to the terrain underfoot, in areas where flagstone paths now cover the boggy peat moors. In addition, Derry Brabbs has reshot the entire book specially with stunning year-round photography, to bring this classic fully up to date. Wainwright on the Pennine Way brings together a writer and a photographer who have each been acclaimed for their artistry in recording the high places of Britain. This is a ‘must have’ memento or gift for anyone who has done the route or an aspirational reference work for armchair walkers content to let others do the legwork.

In September 1938, A. Wainwright made a solitary walk through the Pennines. The following year he wrote up an account of this walk, which was eventually published in 1986. This illustrated guide, written by members of the Wainwright Society, is a recreation of this walk adapted for today’s roads and rights-of-way, taking a route that Wainwright might have chosen if he was planning it today. The route is 247 miles long and divided into 18 stages. With maps and illustrations inspired by the work of the great AW, this labour of love is essential for all those who wish to follow in Wainwright’s footsteps.

A fascinating story of a solitary walk through the Pennines taken by A. Wainwright in September 1938.

David & Heather Pitt, who re-created Alfred Wainwright’s famous 1938 ‘Pennine Journey’, with maps by Ron Scholes and illustrations by Colin Bywater, here describe a new 76-mile long-distance walk from Kirkby Stephen to Settle. This pictorial guide follows a route through this picturesque and, in parts, demanding area of Cumbria and North Yorkshire – with a short diversion into Lancashire. It can be used in conjunction with Wainwright’s Walks in Limestone Country and Walks in the Howgill Fells. The route has strong associations with railways. It passes over the spectacular Smardale Gill viaduct, and close to the Stainmore Railway, the disused Ingleton and Tebay Railway, and the Settle–Carlisle railway.

This book presents a portrait of the Pennine Way, Britain's oldest and best known long-distance footpath, tracing its remarkable history through the experiences of walkers past and present. As Andrew McCloy walks the 268-mile route from the Derbyshire Peak District to the Scottish borders, he discovers how the Pennine Way set a benchmark for personal challenge and adventure and how reconnecting with wild places and the unhurried rhythm of the long walk continue to provide a much-needed antidote to our busy modern age. The resilience of the long distance walker is mirrored in the path's fascinating history: the initial struggle for access, battles to tame the bogs, later challenges of path erosion and the fluctuating circumstances of the rural hostel. Above all else however this is a book about Pennine Way people - from crusading ramblers to resourceful B&B landladies, hard working rangers to fanatical trail walkers. Their conversations and memories are woven into the narrative to give an account of the changing fortunes of the path and its special significance. Personal, thoughtful and often humorous, The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey is an exploration of our desire for challenge and adventure, the stimulation of wild places and how a long journey on foot through our own country still resonates today. It will appeal to people who have walked or are preparing to walk the Pennine Way, as well as to those with an interest in the history and legacy of this iconic path.

Wainwright's Way is a journey on foot through Wainwright’s life from Lancashire to the Lakes. This walking guide charts a 126-mile long-distance route linking the place where Wainwright was born - a Victorian terraced house in Audley Range, Blackburn - with his final resting place on Haystacks, his heavenly corner of Lakeland. Along the way, the walk, split into ten day stages, literally follows in the footsteps of Wainwright at work, linking the sights he sketched and wrote about in a succession of Lancashire guides: A Ribble Sketchbook, A Bowland Sketchbook and A Lune Sketchbook. Continuing northwards, the walk arrives in the county Wainwright knew best, as celebrated in his books, Westmorland Heritage and Three Westmorland Rivers. Spending time in Kendal, where Wainwright lived for 50 years, the route stops to enjoy a unique circular town walk linking all the places associated with AW – from the Museum and Library, to the Town Hall where he worked, to his two residences at Castle Grove and Kendal Green. From here, the walker enters Wainwright’s ‘earthly paradise’ and takes a meandering course across Lakeland from Kendal to Buttermere, through the territory made so familiar by AW’s intimate Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. The route visits some of the lesser known valleys, passes and peaks recorded in The Far Eastern, Eastern, Central and Western Fells guides, and stops in Borrowdale, one of Wainwright’s favourite valleys, taking in a section of his Coast to Coast Walk along the way. The climax of the walk follows the final journey of Wainwright himself, as his ashes were carried onto Haystacks from Honister Pass to be scattered by the side of Innominate Tarn. From here, the walker drops down to the shores of Buttermere and visits the final memorial to Wainwright - the window on to the fells in the tiny roadside church of St. James. It is a fitting end to both a memorable walk completed – and a memorable life fulfilled. Much more than a route guide, this book uncovers the history, landscape and characters of many of the places sketched by Wainwright. It is a walk through some of the most spectacular scenery in the North of England – including a surprising Lancashire, a county of dramatic river valleys, high moors and lonely woodland cloughs. This trek unites the two contrasting lives of the master fell walker – his industrial Lancashire life and his Lakeland life. It takes in paths on the edge of mill town Blackburn that Wainwright is known to have walked along himself during his youthful sojourns into the Lancashire countryside.