Come, gentle rambler, let Vivienne be your guide

Published 29 August 2008

There are all sorts of words for walking – rambling, ambling, strolling, hiking, striding, shuffling – and there are all sorts of walkers.

Essential reading for lovers of the Lakes

Published 29 August 2008

The Herries Chronicles by Hugh Walpole, with an introduction by Eric Robson (published by Frances Lincoln, £7.99 each)For all those who love the drama and atmosphere of the Lake District Hugh Walpole’s Herries Chronicles (and especially the first book, Rogue Herries) should be as essential reading as Alfred Wainwright but sadly he and this magnum opus has mostly been forgotten since his death in 1941.

50 years before Wordsworth, Susanna writes...

Published 22 August 2008

Susanna blamire was the most considerable poet ever to come from Carlisle. She was born in 1747 at Cardew Hall near Dalston. Her mother died when she was seven and she was brought up by her aunt at Thackwood Nook, Stockdalewath, near Raughton Head in the country south of Carlisle.

The wily character of a Lakeland huntsman

Published 15 August 2008

Willie Irving: Terrierman, Huntsman and Lakelander by Sean Frain (Merlin Unwin Books, £17.99)It is very difficult for a non-huntsman to appreciate how deeply the passion for hunting runs in the veins of the true huntsman. It is not simply a question of an occasional canter across the fells with a pack of attentive yapping hounds and a dozen men or more on horses in pursuit of a defenceless fox.

One man’s vision of Eden

Published 8 August 2008

Graham Uney is passionate about the River Eden. It is “a mighty river” that “takes a long and tumultuous journey to the sea”.

A Kate Moss in sheep’s clothing

Published 1 August 2008

Herdwicks are an impressive breed of sheep. Beneath that brown, raggedy unkempt fleece lives one of the toughest sheep in the country.

A family at war – for 100 years or more

Published 25 July 2008

Martin Daley must be a huge disappointment to his forebears.Ever since the middle of the 18th century, members of his family have served in the armed forces.

Images of a lost empire

Published 18 July 2008

Decoding the graffiti of the long-gone

Published 11 July 2008

We all leave a trace. These days our traces seem to threaten our liberty – closed circuit television, phone and bank records and all the endless documents of our bureaucratic society.

Five gifted men make a church in a million

Published 4 July 2008

St Martin’s Church in Brampton is probably one of the finest works of art in Cumbria. Five remarkable men were responsible for its creation.

Two great men of the Lake District

Published 27 June 2008

The High Places: Leaves from a Lakeland Notebook, by A. Harry Griffin with illustrations by A Wainwright. Edited by Peter Hardy (Frances Lincoln. £12.99)Harry Griffin wrote in 1947: “There’s no more pleasant way of spending a summer Sunday afternoon than climbing, in old clothes and well-worn rubber shoes, the clean, sunny face of Gimmer Crag in Langdale and enjoying long smokes in the sunshine between pitches.”

Feeling the pain, smelling the sweat

Published 20 June 2008

The Wall: Rome’s Greatest Frontier by Alistair Moffat. Birlinn. £16.99Alistair Moffat sees Hadrian’s Wall as “a monument to human sweat.” And he imagines the sweat. He visualises the teams of men who actually laid stone on stone.

Lakeland, made safe by framing

Published 13 June 2008

In the 18th century a gentleman might be seen walking purposefully across the fields where Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake is today, and down to Derwentwater shore.

The ice that carved our county

Published 6 June 2008

Geologists have a different perspective on life to us mere mortals. Alan Smith says our climate is getting colder. That is in the short term. His short term. And his short term is ten thousand years.

Off the wall and down the coast

Published 30 May 2008

Walks can be solitary occasions, time to reflect on the ways of the world as you pace out the miles. Or they can be sociable, a few hours spent preferably with a knowledgeable, lively companion who, if you’re in country you don’t know, not only is sure which path to follow, but can fill you in on all sorts of local detail and draw your attention to the rocks and trees and birds.

From the book of Abraham

Published 23 May 2008

It took four seconds to take a photograph. The subject had to freeze, not move a muscle, stay absolutely motionless, as the photographer focussed the wooden box of the camera perched solidly on its heavy tripod, and placing his head beneath the thick black cloth, he captured the scene that lay before him in light-responsive chemicals on a glass-plate.

The lives and souls of the Solway

Published 16 May 2008

All the barnacle geese on the island of Svalbard, way up beyond the Arctic Circle, take an annual winter break on the waters of the Solway. Other birds who fly further south, to winter on African shores, also break their migratory flights on the sands of the Solway.

Coal mining: The dark ages

Published 8 May 2008

They always appear in photographs or grainy old films as a group of men walking solidly towards the cameras. They wear old jackets and waistcoats and mufflers, their heavy boots are caked with sludge and their flat caps are planted firmly on their heads, sometimes at a jaunty angle and their faces are grimed with coal dust.

Detailed book to be welcomed

Published 1 May 2008

Great Mountain Days in the Lake District by Mark Richards. Cicerone. £16.99. If you laid all the books on walking in the Lake District end to end you could pave all the well-trodden routes over the fells and the morass of soggy paper might do something to halt the erosion caused by the relentless tread of boots.