OWPG’ s Roly Smith reviews the latest outdoor books
Roly Smith book reviews
OWPG’ s Roly Smith reviews the latest outdoor books
A Moorland Notebook
Terry Howard Peakrill Press, £ 12( pb)
No one knows more about the moorlands of South Yorkshire and the northern Peak than Terry Howard, respected rambler, campaigner and founder of SCAM – the Sheffield Campaign for Access to Moorland( of which I was proud to be a member). He wrote this book, in which he eloquently expresses his deeply-held love of the moors, in 1993 and it is now welcomely revised and updated by the author and published by local publisher Peakrill Press. It includes details of 11 walks in the region, illustrated by the author’ s maps, based on those executed by one of his heroes, GHB Ward, in his famous Sheffield Clarion Handbooks. But included after each walk are several blank pages – I counted a total of 27 – which invite the reader to provide their own notes or sketches about each walk. The reason is explained, but whether modern walkers do make such notes and will think 35 per cent of the pages in a 130-page book are blank remains to be seen. Of course the greatest change in access legislation since the book was first published is the Countryside and Access to the Countryside Act of 2000, which gave walkers access to most mountain and moorland in Britain – thus fulfilling the original objective of SCAM. The author explains how SCAM was set up after the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass in 1982,
and how it campaigned vigorously with several organised trespasses to change the law.“ I always wanted our trespass walks to be more than just trying to make a political point,” he writes.“ The moors offer education, discovery and physical exercise, and we wanted to share this, and to allow people to discover the history and heritage they had been deprived of.” And the author is uniquely placed to describe these often forgotten aspects of the moors. Some recent examples featured in the book include Great and Little Hull, two previously lost small hills behind Stanage Edge, and T’ owd Woman Stone, a 2.5 m high prehistoric standing stone on the moors above Bamford and Hathersage, which may have once been the tallest in the Peak.
The National Trails
Stephen Neale Conway, £ 20( pb)
I learnt a new word in the author’ s introduction to this handsome gazetteer for things to do and places to go on the 16 National Trails of Britain. It is“ oxytocin” and apparently it is produced by people listening or telling stories, or simply when we get intimate with nature. Describing 1,000“ hidden”( though none are truly hidden) places along the National Trails, from the Peddars Way to the grandaddy of them all, Tom Stephenson’ s Pennine Way, the author provides what are essentially spiritual introductions to each trail. Examples are:“ Touch the void
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in lucid dreams” for the Yorkshire Wolds Way, or“ The Ridgeway is more connected to magic, wizards and wise women that any other National Trail …” But, as he admits in his introduction, the book was written, edited and put together by“ more than 100 people” between 2023 and 2025. As the book seems to be primarily a gazetteer of things to do and places to go and stay along the trails, as opposed to a traditional directional walking guide, we are left to wonder exactly who those contributors were. And I was a little surprised to read in the description of Sycamore Gap in the Hadrian’ s Wall chapter merely described as“ The most famous section of the path” with no reference at all to its recent senseless felling. It is briefly acknowledged in the Pennine Way North chapter with the terse note“ The tree will return,” but with the enormous public interest in the recent imprisonment of the offenders, I think really think it was worth a little more. Many of the introductions hardly describe the physical features of the character of the trail. That for the South West Path southern section, for example describes the attractions and dangers of swimming in coastal waters, while the Coast Path( North and East) is devoted to the delights of foraging for seafood, with the proviso of always asking for permission and saying“ thank you” when you do so. There are some jarring abbreviations in the text, such as“ Rez” for reservoirs and“ Ln” for lane, and although the book is subtitled“ 1,000 mini adventures” along the trails, I’ m afraid I can’ t see details of B & Bs and caravan parks as being particularly adventurous
The Parallel Path
Jean Ashworth Sceptre, £ 20( hb)
This is another in the recent flood of introspective, highly personalised accounts of a long walk, in this case Alfred Wainwright’ s 190-mile Coast to Coast, soon to become officially recognised as a National Trail. It follows works like Raynor Winn’ s now highly-controversial but bestselling The Salt Path on the South West Coast Path and Anita Sethi’ s I Belong Here on the Pennine Way. In this case the author, a professor of writing at Lancaster University, was
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