OWPG ’ s Roly Smith reviews the latest outdoor books
book reviews Roly Smith
OWPG ’ s Roly Smith reviews the latest outdoor books
If you have a recent book that you ’ d like us to review here , please get in touch with the Editor ( see page 2 ).
Taking a Walk : A History of Recreational Walking in Britain
Ann Holt The White Horse Press , £ 70 ( hb )
Author Ann Holt , editor of Tom Stephenson ’ s 1989 biography Forbidden Land , says this is the book she had always intended to write , and which was finally achieved under the restrictions of the Covid lockdown .
“ Over the years , the history of walking has been much written about ,” she admits in her introduction . “ My project to add to the list was born out of a sense of what was left out , gaps I would like to see filled .”
This admittedly quite expensive , 500-page , magnum opus is an ambitious , academic and thorough attempt to fill those yawning gaps in the history of recreational walking in Britain . While it may lack the public appeal and attractiveness of previous attempts , such as Colin Speakman ’ s Walk : A Celebration of Striding Out from 2011 , I doubt that there has ever been a more comprehensive , meticulously researched and wide-ranging history of walking in Britain .
Holt begins her marathon task by quoting medieval walkers such as
William Langland ’ s 14th century Piers the Ploughman and Geoffrey Chaucer ’ s Canterbury pilgrims , although surely no one can be certain who was the first person to walk for pleasure . Who is to say that Paleolithic man with time on his hands after a successful mammoth hunt didn ’ t go for a stroll to admire his virgin new world ?
Delving deeply into the culture of walking and the perennial “ why walk ?” question , Holt gives a masterful survey of walkers , solitary and organised , through the ages . And it ’ s not just the famous exponents of the Latin notion of solvitur ambulando ( solving a problem by walking ), such as Wordsworth , Dickens and Trevelyan , who fall under the author ’ s forensic microscope . Many ordinary walkers , such as Sheffield ’ s GHB Ward and Terry Howard , get honourable and well-deserved mentions .
Ethel : The biography of countryside pioneer Ethel Haythornthwaite
Helen Mort Vertebrate Publishing , £ 14.95 ( pb )
At times , this new biography of Ethel Haythornthwaite , the Sheffield CPRE activist , environmentalist and poet , seems to be as much about the author as her subject , which is certainly a different and unusual approach .
It includes a complete 67-page reprint of Haythornthwaite ’ s long-form poem ‘ The Pride of the Peak ’, originally published in 1926 and which the author much admires . Each chapter is headed by a letter from the author to Ethel , explaining how her example inspires her .
But it is strange that the author omits to mention Ethel ’ s husband Gerald Haythornthwaite ’ s 25 years ’ service with the Peak District National Park Authority as chair of its Planning Control Committee . He was instrumental in laying down the blueprint for many of the original planning policies in the National Park .
Neither does the author see fit to mention the setting up of CPRE-inspired peakbaggers ’ ‘ Ethels ’ ( 95 Peak District hills mostly over 400m ) in 2001 , which , named after her subject , surely should at least be worth recording in her biography .
Ethel and Gerald Haythornthwaite ’ s tireless campaigning were nonetheless vitally important catalysts to the formulation of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 and the creation of the Peak District National Park , the first in Britain , in 1951 .
As Dame Fiona Reynolds , a former CPRE director , states in her foreword : “ We stand on her ( Ethel ’ s ) slender shoulders and derive strength from her ideals , but we must exert our own courage and imagination to respond to the greater challenges we face today .”
Loughrigg : Tales of a small mountain
Eileen Jones Gritstone Publishing , £ 12.99 ( pb )
Loughrigg , that knobbly little fell which overlooks the northern end of Windermere between the rivers Brathay and Rothay near Ambleside , may be small in stature – it ’ s only 1,101ft ( 335m ) high . But it prompted Wainwright to claim that : “ Of all the lesser heights of Lakeland , Loughrigg Fell is preeminent .”
And this modest height , more specifically its eastern shoulder of Todd Crag , affected my life in much the same way that Orrest
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