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  Wainwright and Me
Mr Peter Linney

27th May 2010

Walkers and Wainwright coalesce as the former absorb the books written by the latter. Our speaker, Peter Linney, told us of his coalition with Alfred Wainwright in his talk “Wainwright and Me”. Born in Bradford in 1931, he retired in 1987, then after ten years working for Save the Children in Africa Peter devoted his time to his hobby, walking and Wainwright and became the Secretary of the Wainwright Society.

He gave us the benefit of his knowledge about Wainwright and told us about the life of the man from his birth in Blackburn to his fame in the Lake District . Born in January 1907 the son of a Yorkshireman from Penistone Wainwright showed even by the age of 12 remarkable ability as a draughtsman, particularly of maps. At the age of sixteen he joined the Blackburn Borough Treasurer’s Department, staying there until 1941when he moved to a similar job in Kendal. This gave him more opportunities to climb his beloved fells and start on the seven books that made him famous. Beginning with “The Eastern Fells” published in 1955 he completed the series with “The Western Fells” published in 1966.

Since then the books have been revised by Chris Jesty who recorded that they include 214 fells, 759 ascents, 178 starting points, and 332 ridge routes.

Peter Linney has also contributed to the Wainwright story by producing what has now become the “Official Alfred Wainwright Gazetteer”. A book no longer published but offered second hand at very high prices on Amazon.

Finally to round off his fascinating talk Peter showed us a short film about AW.

Our last meeting of this session is again at Otley Methodist Church at 10-00am on Thursday  10^th June when Ken Willis will tell us that “Poetry is Fun”.