AW had been approached about appearing on TV several times, once his books had become best sellers, and always refused, but in 1983 he got talked into appearing in a half-hour documentary about himself and his books for BBC North East. He appeared in the first programme for just a minute or so at the end. It went down well and two years later he agreed to appear in a more ambitious programme, as the presenter, which then developed into several series of programmes, with him walking with Eric Robson in the Lake District, the Pennines and Scotland. These programmes went out nationwide and were hugely popular. By the age of eighty in 1987, AW found that he had become a TV star.
Around the same time as his first tentative TV appearance, there was another exciting development in his life. A mainstream London publisher, Michael Joseph, managed to tempt him away from little old folksy Westmorland Gazette with an interesting project.
In March 1983, Jenny Dereham, a Director of the firm, wrote to him with the suggestion of an illustrated book about the Pennine Way, with photographs by Derry Brabbs. She saw it as a follow up to a highly successful book Derry had been involved with called James Herriot’s Yorkshire, which had sold 650,000 copies.
38 Kendal Green
KENDAL, Cumbria LA9 5PP
20th March 1983
Dear Miss Dereham,
Many thanks for your kind and most interesting letter of the 11th. It opened up a prospect I find quite thrilling.
I am a proud admirer of the work of Derry Brabbs. On countless occasions during the past couple of years I have picked up JAMES HERRIOT’S YORKSHIRE with the intention of reading through the text but always I find my attention transfixed by Derry’s beautiful photographs and spent many rewarding hours just looking at them and remembering my own experiences of the scenes he depicts so well. Indeed, although I am ashamed to admit it, I have never yet read the text! But drooling over the pictures has become an evening pastime. Others with whom I have discussed the book feel the same. It is the photographs, more than the text, that make the book.
A Pennine Way book of Derry’s photographs would be a tremendous success, no doubt about it. It would appeal most to those who have already walked the Pennine Way and be a best-selling souvenir of their journey. They number hundreds of thousands and (apart from a minority whose sufferings and privations were such that they have no wish to be reminded of an ordeal they want only to forget) it would be a most welcome refresher of the journey and a memory-stirring reminder they would treasure for the rest of their lives. But let me emphasis again – it is the photographs that would appeal more than the text. Having already done the walk and become familiar with terrain the text would have little of interest unless it could be presented in a attractive form also. In any case, a written description would be looked at only once, but the superb photographs would be referred to often. It is the pictures, not words, that evoke memories.
So my opinion is that the book would have its greatest appeal as a souvenir of a memorable experience – because of Derry’s photographs. A written description to accompany them would be of interest mainly to those readers who had not yet done the walk but were planning to.
While I would be thrilled to bits to collaborate in the proposed book, I would, to be honest, be inclined to give Derry all the credit by writing the text himself, making it his own effort exclusively. But if you really prefer me to be in on it, then doubts arise as to the best way of making the text a suitable accompaniment to the pictures. Although I would be highly gratified if you were to make use of excerpts from PENNINE WAY COMPANION and it would be a pleasure to give you permission to reproduce any of its material, I cannot quite see how this could be done. The microscopic detail of the guidebook would be inappropriate and there are few passages that could be lifted out of context. The danger would be that the text would be too bitty and incomplete to serve as the sort of commentary you need.
My own view, after much thought, is that new text should be written, not one that Derry would follow with his camera, but the reverse: a text that would describe the scenes he chooses while maintaining a continuity of the route. We must accept that any text would be secondary to the pictures. If Derry for some reason is unwilling to tackle the writing of a commentary I could do this if you wished me to. The text would conveniently break up into chapters, each describing a section of the walk, these being in sequence from the start at Edale, and each chapter-heading could have as a small decoration a thumb-nail line drawing from the Companion. Added interest would be given by a complete set of strip-maps of the journey indication only the salient features illustrated by Derry and the nearby towns and villages and omitting irrelevant detail. By using scale maps, however, you may run foul of the Ordnance Survey, whose demand for royalties on a big printing could be considerable, but to avoid this contingency the route could be indicated.
In his next letter to Ron Scholes, congratulating him on at long last getting a publishing deal with Moorland Publishers, AW told him about his own bit of publishing news.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
May 6th 1983
Dear Ron,
Thank you for your letter and enclosure.
Moorland Publishing are in a bigger way of business than I thought, with many distribution outlets for their publications, and seem well able to give your book all the publicity it deserves. I am sorry to learn that you are still struggling to get it finished but the day will come when you take it to Moorland and say ‘That’s it’. And what a relief it will be to get it off your hands! Life will seem suddenly empty. But when the first copy is in your hands the effort will all seem to have been very worth while.
Out of the blue recently I was approached by Michael Joseph’s, the publishers, to collaborate with Derry Brabbs on a book on the Pennine Way. Derry is the photographer whose pictures in HERRIOT’S YORKSHIRE were such a joy. The idea is that Derry will do the pictures and I will write an accompanying narrative with many quotes from PENNINE WAY COMPANION. The firm clearly anticipate a prolific seller and have made a generous offer too good to miss. And today, having seen the TV programme, they want to talk about a similar proposal for a Lakeland book. A director of the firm and Derry are coming up to the Palace at Buxton to discuss details with me on the weekend of May 14–15.
You will be sorry to learn that Harry Firth has been attacked quite suddenly by angina. His first instinct was to cancel his visit to Buxton but a diet of pills has eased his pains considerably and he has now resumed his part-time work on Gazette publications and intends to accompany us as first arranged. We all look forward to seeing you at the Palace some evening during the week.
Until then I must leave you. The TV programme has brought a spate of correspondence that I must reply to before Buxton.
Yours sincerely,
AW
AW met Jenny Dereham and Derry Brabbs at the Palace Hotel in Buxton, where he was staying while working on his Peak District Sketchbook. The deal was then done, in fact AW offered them another book first, about Lakeland (which became Fellwalking with Wainwright, published in 1984). Ideas and plans for the books, plus layouts by Michael Joseph’s designer Susan McIntyre, then started whizzing back and forward – but very soon AW was complaining that he was not happy with the way things were going. He was also not pleased when Sheila Murphy, Michael Joseph’s publicity Director, outlined the interviews and promotional work she had lined up for him
Dear Jenny,
I must thank you for your letter of the 3rd, but must also say that my reactions to its contents are of surprise, shock and even horror. Here am I, getting along like a house on fire, and then you suddenly explode a bombshell that stops me in my tracks.
Surprise
I am amazed to learn that you have pre-determined the number of pages in the Pennine book and presumably of the Lakeland book. Surely the number of pages should be that required to contain the full narrative and the photographs needed to illustrate the text? If you were publishing a novel or a biography you would let it run its full course even if it was over-running the number of pages you earlier had in mind; you wouldn’t cut out a chapter or two because it proved to be longer than you intended. Similarly I think that the narratives and photos of our two books should be given all the space necessary for the production of complete and unabridged books.
Shock
I have been working under the impression that you wanted books to match the Herriot book in size, format and printing area on each page, and my layouts have been prepared with this in mind. You now say that your designer plans to make the Pennine book slightly smaller than the Herriot. Slightly smaller? The proposed reduction in printing area is dramatic. Herriot has a printing area of over 50 square inches per page. Susan plans 35 square inches only. That’s why my layouts don’t fit her drafts. As a matter of fact I have been intending all along that each book should be of 224 pages, as you suggest, but they were to be pages having a similar printing area to the Herriot, and my layouts would have slotted into place very nicely had they been adopted.
Susan wants her bottom smacking for implying that some passages should be cut out and some photographs omitted. This is unfair both to me and Derry. As for counting the characters and spaces of my typewritten lines, how can you assume that my typewriter characters and spaces between lines are going to coincide exactly with the printer’s type and spaces? As for single or double columns for the text, I rather favour single: your letter to me, and this one to you, have lines about the same length as a single column, and of course are quite easy to read as well as easier for a printer to set up, and fewer hyphens would be needed.
Horror
I am horrified at the emphasis being given to the cost of publication, by the counting of pennies. Your intention should be a perfect book, full stop, not a book as perfect as finances permit. By cutting costs you could lose the sale of 10,000 copies. Where’s the saving?
Please turn over;
I haven’t finished yet.
In general, I think I know from long experience what fellwalkers and Pennine wayfarers like to read and the sort of photographs they like to look at, and it is with their preferences in mind that I have been working. They are outdoor people: they like spaciousness around them and they prefer books that have the contents spaciously arranged, not cramped. They prefer large photos that make them feel they are out in the open, not pictures reduced to snaps and crowded in restricted space.
You have knocked the stuffing out of me. I like to feel free to do as I think best, not work in harness imposed by designers who may never have been out on hills and have no feeling for them.
I am sorry to be so forthright but am sure you are on the wrong tack. I have no interest in doing a book I cannot feel proud of. If you persist in taking advice from your staff, and not from me, I am afraid I must consider pulling out of our arrangement, much though I need the money for a good cause.
I think now that we are not going to produce bestsellers. Just books.
Despite all this acrimonious argument, please be assured that you still have my very best wishes.
AW
Dear Jenny,
My ideas on layouts are that they should be informal and not all be to a set pattern, which tends to become monotonous and even boring. The reader should not know in advance what the next page will be like when he turns over; let it come as a surprise and so maintain his interest. I have never in all my books had two pages together that look exactly alike. Every turn of the page is fresh and exciting. Further, the narrative on every one of my pages ends in a full stop, so that each one is complete in itself and gives the reader a chance to pause and study the illustration on that page, these being closely related to the narrative. I dislike intensely sentences that run from one page to the next, or overleaf, as in a novel, which tend to keep the reader’s attention on following the text rather than on the equally important illustrations. This is the way I plan our two books, and you will be simply thrilled to bits when you see what Derry and I have done to uphold the proud traditions of Michael Joseph Limited.
Each book will be of 224 pages, including the eight blanks at the beginning for the titles, a publishers foreword and a list of contents. A final index will not be necessary for the Lakeland book but may be advisable for the Pennine one.
Only innate modesty has prevented me from suggesting the inclusion of a few small black-and-white drawings instead of photographs to fill awkward spaces, and I am therefore glad to learn that you have the same idea. I am all for large photographs only. Colour photos reduced to cigarette card size never give the effect desired, are unfair to the photographer, and are a needless waste of money, but small drawings are not only more likely to attract the eye of the reader but can be quite decorative and much less costly to reproduce, and moreover they can show detail that the camera cannot capture; for example the view from High Street with all the distant features named. I have in fact sprinkled a few of my own illustrations in the chapters I have done so far in cases where the subject is beyond the scope of the camera but needed to illustrate the text. So I agree absolutely.
It’s you who doesn’t need to worry, not me. Derry and I are providing you with books that will be highlights in your publishing career. You’ll see! So don’t worry. Everything will be alright.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Derry, who agrees with me in all things except in the matter of pipe versus cigars, tells me he is visiting you shortly and has craved my permission to smack Susan’s bottom on my behalf. So that no further misunderstandings will arise in Bedford Square I think I should confirm to you that I have given him such permission if, after seeing Susan, he still wishes to exercise this rare privilege.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
5th March 1984
Dear Sheila,
Thank you for your letter of February 28th.
I know you mean well, but, being an honest man, I must say that I found no pleasure in reading it, well written though it was, but only a mounting horror as I read through your several ideas for publicity.
Jenny will have told you what an awkward devil I am, and I hope you will not be too surprised to learn that I reject all your suggestions entirely. Your overtures have only driven me further into my shell.
I’m sorry to disappoint you but I would derive no enjoyment at all from taking part in any of your proposed interviews. Ballyhoo makes me squirm. As you say, I have many fans, and I love them but only at a distance. Nobody gets within a very long arm’s length. You might adopt a different tack: that I am a very private person (rare in these days) who prefers to keep out of the public gaze. Mind you, it’s not because I’m bad-looking; indeed, Jenny will confirm that compared for instance with Derry Brabbs I am quite presentable.
Being old fashioned, I think a book should sell on its merits, not on the personal idiosyncrasies of the author.
Don’t worry about it. I seem to be always upsetting somebody at Michael Joseph’s.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Despite all his moans and quibbles, AW worked happily with Jenny Dereham for the next eight years. Meanwhile he had not forgotten Ron Scholes, suggesting ideas for him and keeping him up to date with his own books, his state of health and the plans for Kapellan, the property Animal Rescue bought to convert into an animal refuge in 1984.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
28th February 1984
Dear Ron,
I expect to finish my book by the end of March to coincide with your final touches to the Countryside book??? Then I would like to try the first three maps of your Cambrian Way as a test to see whether I can do them satisfactorily for reduction to a scale of one inch = one mile. I will get Andrew to print them on a reduced size and let you see the result.
I have been thinking more about Frank Rodger’s books, which makes fascinating reading. This is the sort of book you would do extremely well and thoroughly enjoy doing. So what about a new series by Ron Scholes:
STAFFORDSHIRE ODDITIES
SHROPSHIRE ODDITIES
CHESHIRE ODDITIES
All these you could do without having nights away from home.
The Planning authorities have told me that they have received several objections to our proposed use of the property we are aiming to purchase, so it is by no means certain we shall get it. Their decision will be taken on March 13th. We might be back to Square One.
Sincerely,
AW
Dear Ron,
Good news and bad news.
The good news is that we have been granted planning permission to kennel dogs and cats at the premises we have provisionally agreed to purchase, despite objections by the neighbouring farmers, and so we are now free to go ahead. Betty is over the moon. We can now hope to be settled there within a couple of months. Next time you come over we will take you around the property, in which, of course, you have very right to feel you have a stake.
Other good news is that I have finished the Peak District book and got it off to the Gazette.
The bad news is that I have clearly come to the end of the road as far as close pen work is concerned. After a frustrating three weeks struggling to hand-write the captions, being unable to see properly what I was doing, with my writing constantly straying from the pencil guide lines, I had to give up and ask for the captions to be set in type. This disability does not augur well for the set of Cambrian maps you require, although I would still like to have a shot at it. Mentioning this to the Gazette, they say ‘Why doesn’t Ron do his own maps?’. Apparently, unknown to me, they have seen some maps you have done in connection with the book, and they say they are very good.
Another bit of bad news is that I have had an attack of bronchitis over the past few weeks, which left me totally disinclined for effort of any kind and did not help in completing the Peak District book. I am getting over this now and beginning to feel more normal again.
Now what about your Countryside book? Tell me it is finished!
Yours sincerely,
AW
16th May 1984
Dear Ron,
Having received your version of these few first maps I will see what I can do to copy them, but I still think that (quite apart from the fact that I can no longer see to do close work) your own efforts would be preferable to mine, if only because of your intimate knowledge of the terrain.
I am now quite well again, thanks, as I hope you are. You will be greatly relieved when the Countryside book is finally out of your hands. We are off to Galloway this weekend. I will keep all the maps you have sent in safe custody but do nothing with them until I hear from you again.
Sincerely,
AW
Cannot even see my typewriter lettering now!!
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
15th August 1984
Dear Ron,
Thank you for your letter received today. I am sending you a well deserved complimentary copy of the Peak District book – not one with which I am particularly pleased (age is telling) and not helped by the Gazette printing the ‘list of books’ opposite the title page instead of at the front. Things at the Gazette are in a muddle. There has been a 3 months delays in getting the book out, due to staff shortages and now Andrew has been off sick (vertigo) for some weeks and nobody else there seems able to take over.
I saw two eye specialists, and neither gave me any hope of a cure. The trouble is not cataracts, as I thought, but damaged retinas at the back of the eyeballs. A symptom of old age, they said … so I have come to the end of the road as far as close penwork is concerned. Latterly, as an experiment, I have been trying to draw maps, and find it quite impossible. Not only cannot I see what I am doing but am getting blind spots as I work. I am afraid I will not be able to do the Welsh maps for you, and am sorry about this because I would have liked to help.
Michael Joseph’s seem pleased with the initial response to the Fellwalking book, and have commissioned two others. As these will require only a written narrative and no close work I will probably be able to manage these.
The work of adapting Kapellan is proceeding apace. Betty is up there every day, painting and acting as clerk of works.
Thank you for all the enquiries you have made about a venue for an exhibition, but please cancel the tentative arrangement at Hanley and do nothing further at present. I will await the response to the leaflet, sell as many drawings by post as I can and have the rest on display at an exhibition in Kendal in December.
I note with some dismay that you have still not completed the Countryside book. It is becoming a life’s work!
Sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
8th December 1985
Dear Ron,
Thanks for your letter and kind donation.
I hope your book is selling well. I am working on my penultimate effort ‘Lakeland Mountain Passes’ for Michael Joseph, but with difficulty. I am obviously nearing the end of the road. I cannot now see what I am typing and must ask you to excuse errors. The TV programmes are having a great success in the Northeast, according to the producer. I have seen videos of the first two and am not at all enthusiastic about my performance. He is bringing Nos. 3 and 4 over this week for a preview.
I am having a car park made at Kappellan following police complaints about cars parking on the roadside. All goes well there.
With best wishes for Christmas and a good 1986.
Sincerely,
AW
Ron Scholes’s book Understanding the Countryside was published by Moorland in 1985. The book about Wales he was working on with AW never got completed, leaving Ron with ten AW drawings, which he always treasured. Ron retired as a headmaster in 1989. Between 1997 and 2006 he had six further countryside books published. AW’s relationships with Michael Joseph produced nine handsome coffee table books which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.