Born in Blackburn in 1907, A. Wainwright left school at the age of thirteen. A holiday at the age of 23 kindled a life-long love affair with the Lake District. He devoted every spare minute of his days to researching and compiling the original seven pictorial guides.

Reproductions of the author's original artworks.

Alfred Wainwright, the legendary fell walker and author of the incomparable and unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells was also a fluent, eloquent and diligent correspondent. Writing to old friends and to the many new ones gained through his books, and to his love, and later second wife, Betty, his letters display a much warmer, more sensitive and emotional character than his gruff popular image would suggest. Hunter Davies, Wainwright's biographer, has here collected a selection of letters that range from his early years in Blackburn to his established position as Borough Treasurer in Kendal, and cover all aspects of his professional and personal life, as well as the voluminous correspondence that was a consequence of writing and publishing the Pictorial Guides. The latter vividly illuminate many aspects of that turbulent but ultimately triumphant process, while the former present a picture of a dedicated public servant whose personal life had been deeply unhappy until late in life he found unexpected but transcendent love and happiness. In turn business-like and comic, wonderfully well informed and remarkably innocent, deeply moving and yet tough-minded, the letters present a vivid and unforgettable picture of one of the great but eccentric creative geniuses of the twentieth century.

Wainwright: The Man Who Loved the Lakes is a celebration of the British landscape, and it tells the remarkable story of Alfred Wainwright who in 1952 decided to hand draw a series of guides to the fells of Lakeland. For the next 13 years he spent every weekend walking, and every weekday evening drawing and writing - completing one page per night. The result was Wainwright's Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. Although initially self published they have now sold over a million copies and are still popular and much loved today. He went on to present a series of TV shows on the BBC about walking in the Lake District that made him even better known. He was an unlikely celebrity, he preferred his own company and thought walking in the countryside should be a solitary rather than group pursuit. Wainwright: The Man Who Loved the Lakes introduces him to a new generation of lovers of the countryside, features some of Wainwright's favourite walks and is lavishly illustrated, including stunning aerial shots of the Lake District.

This text provides a compact guide to the ascent of all 214 peaks described in the late Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume pictorial guide to the Lakeland fells. It is designed to be taken on the fells, and not left at home on a bookshelf

The classic biography of Alfred Wainwright. Alfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written PICTORIAL GUIDES TO THE LAKELAND FELLS have been an inspiration to walkers for over forty years. Yet despite many bestselling books and three television series, Wainwright remained an intensely private person. With full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a man more passionate, witty and generous than readers of his guides have come to expect. His biography throws a new and surprising light on a man who has been an enigmatic and misunderstood person.