His guidebooks sold by the millions and are still considered “bibles” today.
Regarded as a curmudgeonly recluse, Alfred Wainwright was also responsible for a quote much loved by Scots: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”
He published a series of famous handwritten, illustrated walking guides to the Lakeland Fells which included detailed maps and hand-drawn works of art which inspired, and continue to inspire, all true fell walkers.
His books sold like hotcakes, and by the mid-80s, he had become a household name, thanks to regular appearances on TV which attracted huge numbers of viewers, despite him often saying very little.
While much of the Lakeland author’s life is well documented, what’s less well known is that he had something of a secret love affair with the Highlands, choosing to spend his summer holidays in Ullapool and Lochinver.
Richard Else, an award-winning filmmaker and producer of BBC Scotland’s Adventure Show, who lives in Newtonmore with fellow film-maker Margaret Wicks, knew the elusive Wainwright better than most.
He produced the now legendary Wainwright series for television and recalls in his recently published book – Wainwright Revealed – how the reclusive guidebook author became a celebrity – a term he would have hated – and what life was like working with this man of many contradictions.
It’s a story which, until the publication of the book, had never been heard…
“I decided to write the book because, although Wainwright died in 1991, a lot of myths have grown up around him. Some people see him as almost a saint, others see him as a curmudgeonly, difficult person,” said Richard.
“He was certainly interesting.
“A lifelong smoker of Freeman’s tobacco and cigarettes, he was as passionate about westerns as he was about the great outdoors and existed on a diet comprising entirely of fried food.
“As the person who spent, for the last 10 years of his life, more time with him than anyone else apart from his second wife, I got to know him extremely well. We travelled more than 5,000 miles together, a lot of that in Scotland.”
Wainwright was born in 1907 and largely led a very reclusive life with little contact with the outside world beyond his own family. Richard became the only person he would collaborate with.
“In my first letter to him I put in some hidden messages that let him know that I knew about the mountains. Several media-types from London had already approached him about doing a TV series and would always start by telling him he’d be the star of the show, an idea he hated, so he’d always say no.
“I took the opposite approach, and from that very first meeting established a relationship, albeit at times a rather bizarre one.
“I was in my 30s and he was in his 70s but we shared a similar life history and background. He’d grown up in poverty in Blackburn and some of my childhood was spent with my grandparents who were very poor. I had relations who lived in the pit communities of Derbyshire, so when he talked about his poverty I could talk about my family’s poverty in a way that wasn’t out of sympathy but out of personal experience.
“We were also both passionate about the great outdoors – me in my broadcast career making films about the great outdoors,” said Richard.
For the book, Richard wanted to step back and look at Wainwright’s achievements, which he feels in many ways are under rated as he’s sold more than two million books.
“I also wanted to look at the forces which drove him – I don’t think he understood them himself. The jargon we’d use these days is that he was probably on the spectrum of Asperger’s Syndrome which I think helps explain him.
“Often when we talk about mental health issues it’s in an entirely negative way, but I feel that for him, these issues were a positive. He couldn’t have carried out the work he did without them.”
Wainwright was responsible for a huge body of work. He spent 13 years chronicling every bit of the Lake District, yard by yard. In Scotland, he spent the 1930s visiting Arran, then spent the next 40 years visiting inaccessible and remote parts of Scotland to chronicle it.
“Scotland almost defeated him because it was so big, so he had to be content with doing six volumes of mountain drawings. He chronicled everything from Ben Hope and Ben Loyal in the far north right the way down and did some amazing journeys such as walking the 30-odd miles from Ullapool to Lochinver in a single day without seeing another person or vehicle.
“One time he pitched up at Sheildaig where there was nowhere to stay and eventually a widow took pity on him and gave him a room for the night.”
For 40 years, he spent his annual summer holidays in Ullapool and Lochinver, two places he adored.
Richard feels Wainwright was driven by an inner compulsion which made him want to record every single detail of every step he took.
“He had a phenomenal memory and could remember things in absolute detail, minute details about specific locations, even though he may not have visited them for 15 years,” he said.
A complex character, Richard said he’d often hear Wainwright complaining to others that he’d been ‘conned’ into appearing on TV and that he didn’t enjoy it. The reality was the opposite, he adored it,” he said.
“He spent much of life almost being solitary and because of his mental health issues could be quite cruel to people, but not out of malice. He could also be very funny while his recall and craftsmanship were almost encyclopaedic.
“That said, you could have a marvellous day filming, then the next day, it would be like he was meeting you for the first time.
“He devoted 13 years of his life writing seven guides to Lake District Fells while his first marriage disintegrated around him, which shows his priorities were different to others.”
Wainwright didn’t drive, so was delighted when he discovered Richard did and could take him places in his Land Rover he couldn’t previously reach.
“In many ways it gave him a new lease of life because he was somebody that really wanted to be walking right up to his death,” said Richard.
“He was in very good form until about three weeks before his final illness and was a truly amazing man.”
Wainwright Revealed, published by Mountain Media Productions, priced £20, is on sale now. Such has been the interest in Wainwright that the first edition of the book sold out.