Feature: Books Review - The Wainwright Letters. Edited by Hunter Davies.
Published: 6 October, 2011
by DAN CARRIER
ALFRED Wainwright had a reputation for a certain gruffness. When the man who has sold millions of his handwritten Lakeland Fell guides was recognised striding over hills and through valleys, and approached by a fan, he would quickly deny who he was, put his head down and head off into the mist.
But this apparent unfriendliness was not indicative of the real man. He was simply shy, and a new compilation of his letters – compiled by his biographer, Hunter Davies – reveals he maintained a lively and friendly correspondence with fans who took the time to pen him missives.
The letters range from his early days in the sooty back-to-backs of his home town in Blackburn, and follow him through to his move to Kendal, where he became the borough treasurer – a move taken so he could get out on to the fells as often as possible.
The letters, naturally, allow us to peek into the life of the publicity-shy draughtsman: not only are various aspects of the books covered and fan mail answered, we are also shown more personal letters, dating from well before the publication of his first book in 1955.
Davies first encountered Wainwright through his books. “We bought a cottage in 1976 at Caldbeck and stayed there for 10 years,” says the writer, who grew up in the Lakes. It was this Cumbrian cottage that prompted Hunter to buy his first Wainwright book, which studied the north fells near his home.
“We walked all of the fells using the book,” he recalls. “It is beautiful, and I soon decided I wanted to know more about this man. I had so many questions I wanted answering: was he alive? Where did he live? I wondered for some time whether he was a Victorian.”
Later, Hunter produced his own book, A Walk Around the Lakes, and decided he should find Wainwright.
“I asked if I could interview him,” he recalls. “He agreed, but only on the condition I used it solely for the book and it did not appear in any newspapers or magazines.”
They became friends and Hunter was given access to his papers by his wife, Betty, to enable him to write Wainwright’s biography.
“Right until almost the last few months of his life, he answered all his letters, on his own, without any secretarial help, in either handwriting or type-writing,” says Hunter in the introduction to the volume.
“While he did not care to meet strangers in the flesh, and always dreaded anyone coming to his front door, he was friendly and affable, personal and sometimes quite revealing in his letters. He clearly preferred having chums on paper rather than in person.”
The Wainwright Letters. Edited by Hunter Davies.
Francis Lincoln £20