The Far Eastern Fells (Readers Edition): A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells Book 2 (Volume 2)

Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells #2

by Alfred Wainwright

One name above all others has become associated with walking in the Lake District: Alfred Wainwright, whose seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, first published in 1955â??66, has become the definitive guidebook. 

Wainwrightâ??s meticulously hand-drawn maps, diagrams and drawings take walkers up the 214 principal hills and mountains of the Lake District, describing the main routes of ascent from different starting points, as well as lesser-known variants, showing the summit viewpoint panoramas and the ridge routes that can be made to create longer walks. Every page combines words and illustrations to present the routes in a way that is original, visually appealing and easy to follow.

The Far Eastern Fells, Book Two of the Pictorial Guides, covers the entire area east of Kirkstone Pass, bordered by Ullswater in the north by Windermere in the south, and includes the ascents of High Street, Ill Bell, Place Fell and Wansfell.

Genres: Walking, Nonfiction, Reference, Travel

304 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

About the author

Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn, Lancashire to Thomas Wainwright and Elizabeth Nixon.[citation needed] His family was relatively poor, mostly due to his stonemason father's alcoholism. He did very well at school (first in nearly every subject)[1] 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 further 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 also 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 enough money for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and climbed the nearby hill Orrest Head, where Wainwright saw his first view of the Lakeland fells. This moment marked the start of what he would later describe as his love affair with the Lake District. In 1931 he married his first wife, Ruth Holden, a local mill worker, with whom he had a son Peter. In 1941 Wainwright was able to move closer to the fells when he took a job (and with it 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 walked out three weeks before he retired. They later divorced. In 1970 he married Betty McNally (1922–2008), also a divorcee, who became his walking companion and who eventually carried his ashes to Innominate Tarn at the top of Haystacks.