AW kept up with his regular writers – people from his past or correspondents who had been writing to him for some years – despite all the books he was doing and his eyesight and strength beginning to fade.
He didn’t though keep up with many of his relations, but in 1980 he wrote to his nephew Jack Fish (son of his sister Alice who died in 1971) in Blackburn and offered him seventy-eight drawings from his latest book which could be sold to help the funds of Furthergate Congregational Church, which AW had attended as a boy, though he no longer was a church goer. The sale realised £1,000 for the church.
38 Kendal Green
KENDAL, Cumbria LA9 5PP
20th January 1980
Dear Jack,
In a few weeks time I shall have a book published under the title of A RIBBLE SKETCHBOOK. This is a collection of 78 drawings of scenes in the Ribble Valley, and, as with all the similar books I have turned out over the past few years, the original drawings will be sold for the benefit of charities or other worthy causes.
It seems to me appropriate that in the case of the Ribble the drawings should be sold in the Blackburn area, and that, in view of your New Church Appeal, the proceeds should go to that Fund.
It you would like to have them for that purpose, and can stage an exhibition for their sale in the Memorial Hall or elsewhere in Blackburn, you can have them with pleasure. They would come to you mounted and signed ready for framing. Similar drawings from other recent books have usually sold for 12.50 each and there has been no lack of buyers. I will send a copy of the book to the Features Editor of the Blackburn Times when it is published, for review, and he might be persuaded to give it some publicity, with a note of the exhibition arrangements. You might be able to think of other ways of bringing it to notice, for example, by a circular to the other churches in the district.
I enclose a copy of a companion volume, A LUNE SKETCHBOOK, which has just been published, to give you an idea of the sort of drawings that will appear in the Ribble book. The Lune drawings are to be exhibited and sold for Animal Rescue at The Bookshop, Market Street, Kirkby Lonsdale, on Thursday to Saturday, February 14th to 16th. I mention this because if you are interested in my offer it would be a good idea for you to come over to Kirkby on the Saturday afternoon about 2 o’clock (bringing Winston and Linda if they are likely to want to help) and see for yourself how such drawings are usually exhibited and to discuss any matters that may occur to you.
I expect the book to be published and the drawings to be ready in about two months time, but would like to know whether you are willing to undertake the exhibition and sale as soon as possible so that I can notify the details on a leaflet to enclose with notices of publication that are always sent out to prospective purchasers on a mailing list who always request details of any sale of drawings.
Sincerely,
AW
George Haworth, his exact contemporary, who had been at school with him, had now moved to Arnside and wrote about all the great walks he was able to do, despite his age.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
17th April 1980
Dear George,
Thank you for your letter. Yes, I remember you writing some years ago, but increasing age has not improved my memory and I still cannot place you. There were so many Haworths about in those days.
I never before heard of anyone climbing Meldon Hill, or even wanting to, although obviously someone has and indeed lived there. I have often wondered about the ruins of Meldon Hall; there could be a story there. Take a photo if you ever get there. But beware the guns of Warcop. These hills are their firing targets.
Funny you should have planned a book on the Eden. The Lune book is the first of a trilogy. A companion book on the Ribble has just come out and my version of the Eden will be published in the late summer.
Yes, I keep very well, thanks, a blessing I attribute to excessive smoking. Tomorrow I am off to Blackburn for a couple of days. I rarely go there, but like to see the Rovers once every season. I shall have a look at the Furthergate area, now totally blighted.
Thank you for your invitation to call on you at Stonycroft. You make it sound like Mandalay! Fact is I am so flaming busy that I find it difficult to get away from my desk, but as you are not likely to meet me on Meldon Hill I will bear your invite in mind when next I am in Arnside.
Yours sincerely
AlfWainwright
38 Kendal Green
KENDAL, Cumbria
7th May 1980
Dear George,
Thank you for the report on your successful ascent of Meldon Hill, a feat that must almost qualify for inclusion in the Guinness records. I have no doubt that the heaps of stones in fact marked the site of the Hall, which was quite near to the summit. I have never seen any references to the history of the place, but what a story it would make! Anyway, congratulations on a sterling performance.
I had a look at the Furthergate area when over in Blackburn three weeks ago to watch the Rovers. It is a most depressing scene, a wilderness. The Church still stands, but now solitary in a wasteland. And the Post Office still functions. But it is a mistake to go back to the scenes of childhood. One feels a stranger amongst strangers.
Yes, for Mandalay read Manderley. A stupid mistake. My mind must be going.
Off to North Wales in a couple of days, hoping the good weather holds. Hope to do Snowdon (by railway) and a few other summits (slowly on foot).
Be seeing you sometime.
Yours sincerely,
AlfWainwright
38 Kendal Green
KENDAL, Cumbria
24th January 1982
Dear George,
I don’t consider that you need apologize for your 1981 fellwalking exploits. Your itineraries seem pretty good, and far more ambitious than mine. In fact, the only Lakeland summits reached in that year by me were Great Carrs and Swirl How on a perfect day in November. How good it felt to be on the tops again! I came down very reluctantly. But I have not given up entirely. I have had working holidays in North Wales in the past two years and enjoyed splendid expeditions on the Glyders, Lliwedd, Snowdon, the Nantlle ridge, Cnicht, Cader Idris and a few others not forgetting the toughest of all, Tryfan, its two miles up and down taking me ten hours. I have quite fallen for North Wales. It has a greater variety of landscape than the Lakes.
I’m sorry I haven’t yet fulfilled my promise to call on you, and in fact have never been to Arnside since I last wrote. Truth is, my days are so crowded, and becoming more so, that social engagements are ruled out. In spite of ten-hour working days I always seem to be behind schedule. Of course I would like to see you but it would be much more convenient to me if you were to drop in on me sometime when you are in Kendal. To preserve some measure of discipline in my life, and at the same get away from my desk and stretch my legs, I go along to Kendal Borough Museum (near the Railway Station) two mornings a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and do a two-hour stint (10–12) preparing a card index of specimens. These are my two weekly periods of relaxation, occasions when I am often visited by old colleagues and friends for a chat, and it would really suit me better than making a definite arrangement to come to see you, which would have to be subject to last minute cancellation, if you would do the same, calling around 10.30 or 11 so that I could take you out for a coffee.
In the meantime, kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Frank Nash first contacted AW in 1979, offering to donate all the monies from a sponsored walk he was doing to Animal Rescue. AW and Betty were delighted – and after his first gift, invited him to visit them, which he did. He went on to do many walks, some of them enormous long distances, gathering lots of sponsors, with all the money going to Animal Rescue, especially for the creation of Kapellan, their refuge. Frank also took lots of photos on his walks and sent them to AW, who used some as research material for his various sketchbooks.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
25th July 1982
Dear Frank,
Many thanks for your letter, detailing the exciting prospects of October in Lakeland. Your marathon along the High Street range seems likely to make this a memorable visit. The dates you suggest are quite convenient to us. I gather from what you say that you would really prefer to do the walk alone and have no witness to your sufferings. So be it. We will be pleased to welcome you with refreshments either on Garburn Pass or Moor Divock.
The quiz enclosed with your letter was a complete surprise and strikingly confirmed what I have suspected for some time – that I am losing my memory. I could answer only 10% of the questions, and most of the quotes I could not even remember writing.
Ghastly experiences here last Tuesday. A ten-man BBC team, complete with producer, cameraman, sound recordist, dubbing mixers and the lot, descended on us to get ‘shots’ and interviews for a Tyne-Tees production provisionally entitled WAINWRIGHT and due for showing in November. I am not yet recovered from the ordeal.
See you in October if not before,
Sincerely,
AW
Dear Frank,
Thank you for your very kind letter and set of photographs, which, unfortunately, don’t measure up to requirements. The viewpoints are excellent and the foregrounds good, but the background reflects the sort of weather you experienced on High Street, mist obscuring all detail. The West Wall Traverse must remain a target for 1983.
All is well here as I hope it is for you, but the weather has been pretty awful recently except for one golden day when we went up Loughrigg. There are now steps up the Grasmere slope!
Love from both of us and eleven cats,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL
7th May 1983
Dear Frank,
Everybody seems to have enjoyed the TV programme. Actually I did myself. The agonies of apprehension soon passed when I found that the producer had mercifully cut out my bad moments in front of the camera. I couldn’t recognise my own voice but I suppose the sound recorder never lies. On the whole, not bad. I could sit through it again.
The programme ended at 7.35. At 7.36 Joan Rainey was on the phone with tears streaming down her face out of sheer ecstasy – she is writing to the BBC for a repeat showing. At 7.40 another woman was on the phone, also with tears streaming down her face out of sheer ecstasy. So it went on all evening, all the callers being female (why?) and this explosion of enthusiasm for the show has been followed by a spate of letters from all over the country (most of them from unknown females) all favourable and all calling for a reply. I’m busy! Incidentally, Joan Rainey rang a few minutes ago to report that the programme had been featured on ‘Pick of the week’ on the radio.
I have not yet heard from Brian, but will expect to do so. I have my doubts about his publishers and the time for counting chickens is not yet.
We look forward to seeing you in the summer.
West Wall Traverse or bust.
Sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
9th January 1984
Dear Frank,
Again my great thanks for the splendid result of your magnificent marathon.
And for the portfolio of photos taken on your pilgrimage to Scafell. I have done four drawings of the W.W. Traverse from these, large enough to be included in the next volume of Lakeland Mountain Drawings but capable of reduction for Brian’s proposed book. I think he is very disappointed with his publishers, who seem to be treating him very badly. I will try to get the Gazette to publish if all else fails.
I return your photos with profound thanks.
Best wishes for 1984,
Sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
22nd April 1984
Dear Frank,
Good news, bad news, and no news.
The good news is that we have been granted planning permission to kennel dogs and cats at the property we have provisionally agreed to buy, despite objections from neighbouring farmers. Betty is over the moon. Now we can go ahead and complete the purchase and hope to be in operation in a couple of months. Next time you come over we will take you on a tour of the premises, in which, of course, you have every right to feel you have a stake.
The bad news is that I have been laid low over the past few weeks with an attack of bronchitis, which has left me totally disinclined for effort of any sort, even ruling out the solution of your crossword. But I have now solved six of the clues, averaging one a week, and hope to have it finished by autumn.
Yours sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
7th April 1985
Dear Frank,
Many thanks for your letter and accompanying cheque, bringing our reward for your prodigious effort of last summer to an amazing total. Collecting the dues must be even harder work than the walking! We appreciate your great kindness in this matter.
When Derek called on us briefly a couple of months ago he rather gave us the impression (in between cataloguing his personal achievements) that you had rather wearied of your labours on our behalf and proposed to take a rest from marathons this year. It was something of a surprise, therefore, to learn from your letter that you seem again to be chafing at the bit. Now that the money is rolling in in great lumps from Michael Joseph and likely to continue to do so for the next two or three years the needs of Animal Rescue are being well catered for, and it would be perfectly all right if you decided not to exhaust your flesh further in the cause.
However, if your appetite for masochistic exercise continues unabated, the round of the Howgill Fells would be a perfect expedition, all the summits being neatly arranged and well defined but requiring a day of clear visibility. Your preference seems to be for the Northern Fells, a group very similar in plan to the Howgills, calling for a circular tour rather than a ridge walk, but tougher. If your choice is for the Northern Fells, I would suggest leaving your car at the Blencathra Sanatorium, and then, walking clockwise, visiting
Skiddaw Little Man
Skiddaw
Bakestall
Great Calva
Knott
Great Sca Fell
Meal Fell
Great Cockup
Longlands Fell
Brae Fell
High Pike
Carrock Fell
Bowscale Fell
Bannerdale Crags
Ending with a complete traverse of the main ridge of Blencathra and descending Blease Fell to the car. This itinerary visits all the fells in the group except Carl Side, Long Side, Ullock Pike, Souther Fell and Latrigg, which could only be reached by detours or a retracing of steps.
See how you feel nearer the time.
In any event I am proposing to select one of the items of capital expenditure at Kappellan of roughly equivalent cost to the total of your sponsored donations and affix a plaque bearing testimony to your efforts. This is something we can discuss when you come over and have a look round at some of the features we have introduced with Betty as Clerk of Works.
All is well here and at Kapellan, as we hope it is with you. We send our love and grateful thanks.
Betty x AW x
38 Kendal Green, Kendal 6th
October 1986
Dear Frank,
Many thanks for your kind letter and the accompanying parcel of cheques – a magnificent reward for your long trek over the Pennines and Cheviots. Which we appreciate greatly. Not least for the work involved in collecting the promises of your sponsors.
The letter was awaiting our return from a week in Scotland near Kyle of Lochalsh where we had a very spacious and comfortable log cabin that made tolerable six days of abysmal mist and rain. We were joined here by the BBC producer, the main purpose of the visit being to discuss a TV series on Scotland planned for next year.
I’m sorry to be so late in sending you a copy of the book, the reason for the delay being due to the publishers moving to new premises in the week of publication, their failure to send me complimentary copies being due to an oversight. I mentioned this to them a fortnight ago, and the copies have since arrived with an apology.
The Coast to Coast walk is to be published in the spring of 1987, and the Lakeland Mountain Passes in 1989, the latter having been deferred for a year because the publishers and the BBC, acting jointly, want me to do a book on Scotland to accompany the series in 1988. Ex-fellwanderer is to be published by the Gazette to coincide with my 80th birthday in January, and I will send you copy when available. So life continues hectic for me and for Betty, who spends much of her time supervising things at Kappellan.
You make a mysterious reference to Derry. I expect to be seeing him within the next fortnight to check on his final photos for the C to C walk.
Love, and again many thanks, from Betty and me.
AW
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
11th January 1987
Dear Frank,
Betty tells me that you are considering making a flying visit next Saturday for my birthday, but please do not think of making such a long journey for so inauspicious an occasion. A nice thought though. But in any case the Gazette have invited me out on that day for a fish and chip meal, which I have accepted.
Betty also tells me that you have reported the collapse of the West Wall track out of Lords Rake. I shall be very interested to have the details next time I see you.
Good walking in 1987
AW
AW was still in contact with Chris Jesty, though he had some bad news for him in 1984 when Chris sent him a copy of the first book he had managed to get published, a guide to the Isle of Purbeck.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal 16th May 1984
Dear Chris,
I thank you for your package and congratulate you on getting your first book in print. I recoiled in horror upon finding that the pages were stapled along the spine. This is a shocking mistake. A stapled binding means that the book cannot be opened flat, both hands being needed to consult it. The book should have been stitched down the middle so that every page would open flat on a desk or table and not need the use of hands to control it. Stapled books are infuriating and I never buy them on principle. Black mark!
Another criticism concerns the maps, which are excellently drawn but should have been given a scale in miles instead of the ridiculous 1.25000 etc. these references to size being unintelligible to everyone including myself. You have been a bit too clever here, and your device will not be appreciated by walkers.
The hand-written text is very good indeed and as clear to read as print, but the illustrations are below Mark’s usual standard and a portfolio of colour photographs instead would have been more attractive.
The personal notes are poor, not well composed and largely irrelevant, and would have been better omitted. You must avoid using the word ‘so’. It is no substitute for ‘therefore’.
I haven’t read the text, still having no wish to visit the Isle of Purbeck, but did notice that you had described it as one of the most beautiful places in Britain – a surprising statement from someone who knows Lakeland and North Wales.
I give you 5 marks out of 10, no more.
Yours sincerely,
AW
AW did try to help aspiring writers, recommending people to Bill Mitchell, editor of Dalesman magazine, though with some reservations. All the same, when Bill then sent him the manuscript of a book he was doing about Scotland, wanting AW to write an introduction, he was rather scathing about the contents.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
15th September 1984
Dear Bill,
I was recently given a manuscript to read written by a Mr Jack Woods, a teacher who lived near Kendal for many years and is now a verger in Westminster Abbey.
His manuscript, titled ‘The North Road’, is the history of the old road between Kendal and Shap with a descriptive account of the route (which can still be seen and followed for most of the way) and is supplemented by a portfolio of his own black and white photographs.
The narrative is excellent, well written and beautifully typed, but the subject is of such limited interest that he is unlikely ever to see it published, and I have told him so. Nevertheless I enquired of the Gazette about a possible paperback, but without success, and also spoke to the local Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, but the text is much longer than they can include in their annual Transactions.
Mr Woods would dearly like to see his effort published and is wondering if Dalesman would consider it for their series of paperbacks, for which it would be just about the right size. He has asked me to write to you on his behalf, to introduce him, and would like to call on you on October 19th, when he will be in this area. I hope you will agree to this. You would find his manuscript interesting, but I fear not a viable proposition because of its lack of general appeal. I have expressed this opinion to him, but it would give him a measure of satisfaction if only he could see a real live Editor with it. He is prepared for disappointment.
I hope you will grant him the favour of an interview.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
Dear Bill,
Thank you for your letter and enclosures. Sorry to have taken so long to reply but have been run off my feet lately with one thing and another.
I have looked through your Scottish narrative with interest – and some misgivings. Your choice of title is intriguing and inventive, but I have a doubt about its impact when seen in a bookshop window. Nobody has ever heard of Muckle Flugga and people’s reactions would be the same as mine, that it is another yarn about Ireland, not a popular subject, and it really needs a subtitle (journeys in Northern Scotland).
The map is awful. I cannot understand your selection of place-names nor the locations you have given them: Crianlarich in the North Sea, the Caledonian Canal apparently issuing at Aberdeen. There is no clue as to the black patches and the sprinkling of dots and no scale of miles. It is dreadful, badly-drawn, misleading and unintelligible. You must omit it or substitute a much better one.
You need to check your spellings in the narrative. Bonar Bridge is not spelt Bonner Bridge and this is not the only mistake.
I am honoured by your invitation to write a foreword and am pleased to accept provided you cut out the map and any others you may think of including and correct some of the places names in the narrative, which is otherwise interesting and especially good on the natural life of the northern districts.
As I say I am very busy at present and would like to see the book in print with your illustrations, before thinking about a foreword.
Yours sincerely,
AW
As an alternative title what about ‘It’s a long way to Cape Wrath?’ which everybody has heard about? If I were to see this title in a bookshop I would pounce on it and so would many others.
The letters to the Ainley family continued: to Margaret and daughter Catherine. AW affected to be furious, cutting her off, when Margaret announced that she was now a railway fan, rather than a fells fan.
They continued to live in Brighouse till 1984 when Richard, her husband, lost his job. They moved to Norwich – which AW warned would not be to their liking, but after two years or so, they returned to Brighouse.
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
20th December 1981
Dear Margaret,
What on earth has come over you?
Not a word about Cathy’s ambition to be the first woman on Everest without oxygen. Not a word of the joys of the open countryside, of conquering savage peaks. You talk only of nasty smoky trains.
I must write you off as one once akin to me, one who thought as I did, but alas does so not more. Trains are a pre-occupation of advancing years. The fells are for the active and young in heart. You have suddenly become middle-aged.
This being so, lamentably, your next holiday must be to North Wales, where little steam trains run all over the place, not only to the top of Snowdon (which will revive memories of the days, now gone, when you loved to tread the summits) and into the depths of slate quarries, but also through the most glorious country. Enclosed is the guide to the Festiniog Railway, one of a dozen lines open to the public, which is utter joy every yard of the way and must be sheer ecstasy for an elderly train spotter.
A happy Christmas, anyway, in your new abode. Sorry I haven’t a card with a train on it. Mine are all of mountains.
Sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
17th July 1983
Dear Catherine,
Thank you for your long and interesting letter – and congratulations on your splendid performances on the fells during your stay near Keswick. And I suppose I must congratulate your mum and dad for keeping up with you because they must be quite old now. I didn’t fall out with your mum. What happened was that she went a big strange and started to love nasty steam engines instead of mountains. And she began to be frightened of lovely caterpillars. She must have been very difficult to live with. But I am glad to learn from your letter that she seems to be normal again, and it is good news that you are going back to Keswick next year.
I notice that you have a new address and I hope you like it and have a nice school. I don’t like Brighouse. It makes me think of nasty steam engines.
Thank you for your photograph. You are getting to look like your mum but I hope you never suffer from the same strange ailments she has had to endure recently.
Do you remember the first hill you ever climbed? I do. It was Smearsett Scar in Ribblesdale. In those days your mum used to like me.
I must say you do write well! Not a single spelling mistake. Now that your mum has stopped writing to me, perhaps you will kindly send me a letter again after your next visit to Keswick and tell me about the lovely mountains you climb while you are there.
With love, just for you.
AW
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria 29th July 1983
Dear Margaret,
Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Scriptures that a little child shall lead them? Your Catherine seems to have done the trick. She has restored your soul.
It was nice to hear from you again and find your news all of happy days on the mountains. I am reassured. You still love me despite your recent wayward behaviour. I am prepared to forgive and regard your lapse from rational thought as merely temporary, probably something to do with change of life, and accept that you are now back to normal. I was right all the time. Mountains are so much nicer than mucky steam engines. I must say I was astonished, even outraged, by your desertion of mountain tracks for railway tracks. However, this phase is past. You have returned to the fold and will not stray again. Days spent on the tops are the best days of all, and your enthusiastic account of your adventures during your stay at Keswick and eager anticipation of the next convinces me that you have seen the light. May it never grow dim again. No more gaping at nasty steam locos on the Worth Railway!
I am glad you like your new house so much, but what a tragedy that it should coincide with Richard’s loss of his job. However, a man who can climb Easy Gully has obviously enough fortitude to overcome setbacks, and I am sure things will turn out all right for you.
Catherine has promised to write to me again after her next visit to Long Close and tell me about taking her old mum and dad up the hills.
Yes, OK, you can too.
AW
X (for Catherine)
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
7th July 1984
Dear Margaret,
I received your fat parcel of goodies with anticipatory pleasure and for the most part the contents bore glad tidings of another week of high adventure amongst the Lakeland peaks, with some splendid performances, notably the direct ascent of Grasmoor End. You surprise me by reporting that a clear track has formed up this formidable buttress. When I did it all was virgin ground and I didn’t expect any followers. Great Gable, too, provided another expedition, as it always does.
I can well understand that your elation at these successes was disturbed by doubts about your proposed move to Norwich. This is a lovely city by all accounts, but the contours are dismaying; in fact there aren’t any. Norwich is 50 feet above the sea, according to my map, and a journey of 20 miles is necessary to reach a height of 100 feet. Good country for cycling, but not the sort of landscape that suits me. I would rather stand and look at Great Gable than Norwich Cathedral. If I were you I would delay moving house until Richard is absolutely settled in the new environment with a congenial job and a guarantee of permanency, and in the meantime commute once a fortnight. Brighouse has its faults but you are amongst your kin folk there and within reach of moors and mountains. Norwich is foreign country. And is even without steam locos.
In May I had my first ever holiday in Galloway, and found it delightful, the scenery good, the people friendly and the roads very quiet. I’ve got a good farmhouse cottage address if you ever want it.
I hope your doubts will soon be resolved. Let me know what happens. Sincerely,
AW
7/7/84
Dear Catherine,
Thank you for a splendid letter, well written and without spelling mistakes, and telling me of the exciting adventures you had on your holiday. Clearly you are now an accomplished climber. Not many people can claim to have stood on Grasmoor Pinnacle! And I am glad to know you have been on Great Gable and seen the wonderful view.
You are right in thinking that I have some cats. Seven – Totty, Tina, Pixie, Daniel, Dillon, Ginger and Jeffrey – plus two just brought in as strays – one of them, found injured, is just like the one in your photo.
AW
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
18th October 1984
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for a very kind letter and effusive praise for the new book. Some of the pictures don’t deserve it, a few (notably the Helvellyn and Blencathra frontispieces) being much too green (a fault of the printer).
As for your Mosedale Horseshoe article, I think ‘Cumbria’ is the best vehicle for it. The Gazette wouldn’t be interested. It must, however, be typed. Send it to Mr Bill Mitchell, Editor. I found it so entertaining that I am very hopeful he would publish it. Just to show that the subject is currently topical you might preface it by saying ‘having read the chapter on the Mosedale Horseshoe in “fellwalking with W” I have written of my own experiences on this magnificent walk’ lay off the personal idiosyncrasies of your companions a bit and enlarge on the descriptions and emotive effects.
Hope you have now settled down well in the flatlands of Norfolk.
Sincerely,
AW
X (for Catherine)
38 Kendal Green, KENDAL, Cumbria
24th March 1985
Dear Margaret,
I don’t want to say I told you so, but events in your new environment seem to be turning out as I expected. Norfolk is not the place to fritter away your life. You are a creature of the hills and should be among them. Norfolk is a foreign country and you are in exile. Nor are the people the same. I only once ventured into East Anglia, by train, and it was significant that none of the other passengers were looking out of the windows: there was nothing to see. I felt suicidal. Not a hill in sight.
Come back home, to where you belong.
I hope you will soon be able to tell me you are doing just that.
Yours sincerely,
AW
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
26th January 1986
Dear Margaret,
Great news!!
Back to the hills and moors and steam engines.
Now you can start living again
AW
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for a long and entertaining letter from beautiful Brighouse.
We made a flying visit to Norwich a month ago to see the cathedral and the environment from which you escaped. I can appreciate your feelings, although, to be fair, it is better than Lincolnshire, which is deadly.
Glad you enjoyed the TV series. Everybody seems to have done, but it has had serious side effects. To get away from pressures we went to the north of Scotland last week and I was recognised and accosted five times, at Achiltibuie, Poolwe, Torridon, Spean Bridge and Abingdon – and found 100 letters waiting for me when we got back home. BBC now want me to do a series of five programmes on Scotland next year.
AW
X (for Alfred, not Cath, I’ve gone off girls who weigh 8 and a half stone)
Thank you too for the catmint bag. Our six cats pounced on it in ecstasy, and, alas tore it to shreds. It was their highlight of 1986.
38 Kendal Green, Kendal
31 August 1988
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for your graphic account of a wet week in Lakeland. The weather really has been dreadful lately. We were lucky to get a beautiful week in May near Kyle of Lochalsh. The old magic is still there.
I was interested to learn of the new path to the Pike from the Corridor Route, and particularly of the state of the West Wall Traverse as described by Richard, his report confirming others I had had.
Catherine’s kindness in nominating Animal Rescue to receive her sponsorship donations is appreciated. Our thirty cats and kittens and eight dogs now in care wish me to say a big thank you to her.
Next Sunday, the 4th, I shall be on Desert Island Discs. The BBC are to do a television documentary on the Coast to Coast walk. So life goes on.
Yours sincerely,
AWainwright
AW had turned down Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 several times in the past but in 1988 agreed to take part. He wanted to see if Sue Lawley’s legs were as good as everyone said, but he refused to go to London to record it. Instead, Sue Lawley came to Manchester. He was driven there by Andrew Nichol of the Westmorland Gazette and afterwards they went to Harry Ramsdens for a slap-up fish and chip supper. The programme was broadcast on 4 September 1988.