Book reviews Roly Smith
Hadrian’s Wall: A Journey
Through Time
David Breeze, illustrations by Mark
Richards & Peter Savin
Bookcase, £15 (pb)
A
s the author, a distinguished
academic on Roman Britain,
rightly states in his preface, there
are many books about Hadrian’s
Wall. The difference with this
one is that it is chiefly a pictorial
history, graced by Mark Richards’
well-loved linescapes and Peter
Savin’s detailed, almost forensic
photography.
The result – although a rather
unwieldy and unmanageable 72-
page, landscape format paperback
– is certainly different from
anything that’s gone before. The
remaining architecture of Hadrian’s
still impressive barrier against the
barbarians of the heathen north
are picked out in intimate detail
in Savin’s photography. Many of
these are matched by Richards’
meticulous penwork, which
unfortunately suffers in some cases
from too much enlargement, which
over-emphasises the stippling
effect of his pen.
Breeze’s account also
investigates what life was life for
the legions who were posted to
Rome’s northern outpost, including
intimate details such as cooking and
eating, cleanliness, pay and religion.
This handsome volume,
admirably produced by Carlisle’s
best-known bookstore, is one which
all devoted Hadrianatics will want to
possess.
The Big Rounds
David Lintern
Cicerone, £18.95 (pb)
T
he Bob Graham, Paddy
Buckley and Charlie Ramsay
Rounds – of the English Lake
District, Snowdonia and Lochaber
respectively – are possibly the
world’s, and certainly Britain’s,
most challenging long-distance
10 Outdoor focus | autumn 2019
24-hour mountain treks. All are
supposed to be climbed, run or
walked in one exhausting day,
taking in a total of 113 mountain
summits which include, of course,
the highest points of England,
Scotland and Wales.
No fare for the weekend hill-
goer then, but David Lintern, who
modestly describes himself as “an
average mountaineer and a below
average runner”, says each can
make magnificent day or multi-day
excursions into some of the UK’s
most remote, beautiful and exciting
hill country.
His personal reminiscences and
outstanding mountain photography
in this beautifully designed and
presented Cicerone guide are
certainly a mouth-watering
enticement to get out there are
explore all or parts of these
classic, if generally unobtainable,
excursions.
But what I found most
fascinating was Lintern’s history
of each of these challenges, and the
accounts of some of the hillwalkers
and runners who had first achieved
these lung-busting goals.
Who knew, for example, that
when gardener and guest house
owner Bob Graham first attempted
his classic 61-mile, 42 top round of
the Lakeland fells in 1932, he wore
nothing more than tennis shoes,
shorts and a pyjama top. Or that
the 57-mile, 24-summit Charlie
Ramsay Round of the Lochaber
hills originated when Ramsay had
incidentally met Chris Brasher,
Paddy Buckley and George Rhodes
on Skiddaw when they were engaged
on the Bob Graham. A swimming
recreation officer for Edinburgh City
Council, Ramsey trained by running
up Arthur’s Seat in his lunch hour.
This is most definitely not
purely a book for the marathon
walker or runner. It is a beautiful
celebration of some of Britain’s
most challenging hills, and as such
is highly recommended.
A Pennine Journey: The story of
a long walk in 1938
Alfred Wainwright
The Wainwright Society, £12.50 (pb)
A
Pennine Journey is thought by
many to be Alfred Wainwright’s
finest book. Certainly, for a man
chiefly known for his intricate
pen-and-ink drawings and precise,
hand-scribed text, it is the best
written of all his works.
Penned as the clouds of war
began to gather over Europe, the
manuscript was found tucked away
in a drawer and published by Jenny
Dereham at Michael Joseph in 1986
and republished by Francis Lincoln
in 2004.
It describes a long walk the
author took at the time of the
Munich crisis from Settle up the
eastern side of the Pennines to
Hadrian’s Wall, and back down the
western side.
But the wisdom of the
Wainwright Society to publish
a verbatim version, with no
disclaimer for the author’s blatantly
misogynistic views over 80 years
after they were first expressed,
must surely be questioned. It
was in this book that Wainwright
expressed the extraordinary view
that he regarded a married woman
who went out to work “with
contempt.” And he went on to
claim “quite the worst offence”
was that if such a woman resolved
to have no children. “They need a
whip across their backs,” claimed
this gentle old man of the hills.
Of course we should make
allowances for the times in
which these words were written,
and they certainly would not
be countenanced today. But the
author also claimed that women
– including the mythical girl who
kept him company every night –
lacked imagination and the rigid
standards and loyalty of men.
Wainwright certainly didn’t lack
imagination, even writing his own
review of his unpublished book,
immodestly comparing it to JB
Priestley’s English Journey which
had been published five years