Wainwright: The Biography

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Wainwright: The Biography

By: Hunter Davies

Narrated by: Stephen Thorne

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About this listen

Alfred Wainwright's unique hand-drawn and hand-written Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells have been an inspiration to walkers for over 40 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With full access to Alfred Wainwright's private letters and unpublished material, Hunter Davies reveals a man more passionate, witty and generous than readers of his guides have come to expect. This biography throws a surprising light on a man who has been an enigmatic and misunderstood person.

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This is a story of a very single-minded man who became famous for his books on the Lake District. His behaviour was a paradox and that of a very driven individual. He left school early and trained to be an accountant in Blackburn. He married young and had a son. Very soon he regretted being married to that woman and moved to Keswick to be in charge of the finances leaving wife and son behind. Eventually he met someone else and the story of their courtship make fascinating listening. His penchant for walking over hill and dale led to him writing guidebooks for walkers in the Lake District from which he gained a great deal of money. A large portion of this was given to the formation of an animal rescue centre in the Lake District. Paradoxically when Wainwright died he left nothing to his son only to his beloved second wife and the animal rescue centre. Another paradox: why was such a fluent and prolific writer relatively poor in one-to-one conversations? He was a more than competent artist. After years of refusing to be interviewed, why did he agree to a number of appearances on TV to talk about walking. A strange but highly competent individual with a soft spot for certain women throughout his life.

The narrator nicely adjusts his voice when Wainwright is quoted verbatim and well maintains the momentum of the story and makes the story flow along.