Wainwright's Coast-To-Coast Walk

Rating:
Summary: Definitive book of the Coast to Coast, with excellent photos
Review: According to some of three of my friends the book 'Wainwright's Coast to Coast' has a lot to answer for. At a party on New Years Eve, 1994, the hostess passed around the book in question. I just had time to read a bit of the introductory material inside the dust jacket, and look through the photographs, taken by Derry Brabbs. Loads of excellent pictures of the wilds of northern England, taken throughout the year in all types of lighting conditions from blue summer skies to overcast darkness brooding over snow covered mountains.

Before the end of January 1995, I had booked accommodation on the walk for four adults at the end of August. Well my web site lists the trials and tribulations of that long trek in Wainwright's footsteps.

The text of the book describes the stages of the walk, and gives some of the history of the places visited, without going into the actual details of the route in much depth. The book is not so much a walkers guide book, like some of Wainwright's work on the mountains of the Lake District, but rather a coffee table book, which may inspire some brave souls to actually try it for themselves.

The photos are what make up the largest part of the book, and they are indeed excellent. All the best views of the route are shown, plus some which are quite a way off the path, like the pictures of the various ancient crosses in the North York Moors. Although it isn't raining or thick with mist in any of the shots, there are many which show dark clouds, rivers swollen with rain, and some rather wintery scenes with ice and snow. This tries to show the hills as they really, not like the pretty blue skied postcards one so often sees. Although I did wonder how he managed to get shots of some the Lake District areas without any people in them? He probably got up very early in the morning.

September 1998 Paul Gallwey, Manchester, England