Better known as Harry Griffin, and for fifty years the Guardian's country diarist, A.H. Griffin also wrote a weekly feature called 'Leaves from a Lakeland Notebook' for the Lancashire Evening Post for almost thirty years until his death in 2004. The High Places is a selection of those articles with illustrations by a man who shared his passion for the Lake District: Alfred Wainwright. Griffin's descriptions of days spent in the mountains and discussions of diverse Lake District matters - from the number of cairns being built by walkers to the quality of a farmer's wife's mutton pie - perfectly combine with drawings from Wainwright's five-volume Lakeland Sketchbook series to make The High Places a delightful celebration of the mountains and fells of Lakeland and their history.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Not only is High Places a compendium of fine work from one of the regions most respected journalists, it is illustrated throughout by the sketches of Alfred Wainwright, the acclaimed Lake District and Coast to Coast chronicler. That's some double act. Lancashire Evening Post I recommend this collection to any Lake District enthusiast. For fans of A.H. Griffin, this book is a must. TGO: The Great Outdoors This collection of articles, all written with the familiarity of a native, the eye of a journalist and the heart of one who was besotted with the fells all his life, whether describing a day on the tops or an encounter with a fox or a stag, never fails to lift the spirit. Cumbria Combining the beautiful nature writing of Harry Griffin and the drawings of Alfred Wainwirght is a stroke of genius. It's a wonderful book worth reading over and over again - preferably while curled up in front of a log fire and a glass of red wine to hand. Whitehaven News This is the perfect book for anyone who loves the Lake District. The combination of Wainwright's pencil drawings and Harry Griffin's short articles, evocative of the world of bucolic England in the 1950s and '60s, make for a delightful pocket-sized hardback, ideal for reading up a hillside. Good Book Guide In a match made in heaven, publishers Frances Lincoln have united two Lakeland legends. Country Walking
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Höhe: 198 mm
Breite: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7112-2829-0 (9780711228290)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Born in Blackburn in 1907, Alfred Wainwright left school at the age of 13. A holiday at the age of 23 kindled a life-long love affair with the Lake District. Following a move to Kendal in 1941 he began to devote every spare moment he had to researching and compiling the original seven Pictorial Guides. He described these as his 'love letters' to the Lakeland Fells and at the end of the first, The Eastern Fells, he wrote about what the mountains had come to mean to him:
"I suppose it might be said, to add impressiveness to the whole thing, that this book has been twenty years in the making, for it is so long, and more, since I first came from a smoky mill-town (forgive me, Blackburn!) and beheld, from Orrest Head, a scene of great beauty, a fascinating paradise, Lakeland's mountains and trees and water. That was the first time I had looked upon beauty, or imagined it, even.
Afterwards I went often, whenever I could, and always my eyes were lifted to the hills. I was to find then, and it has been so ever since, a spiritual and physical satisfaction in climbing mountains - and a tranquil mind upon reaching their summits, as though I had escaped from the disappointments and unkindnesses of life and emerged above them into a new world, a better world.
In due course I came to live within sight of the hills, and I was well content. If I could not be climbing, I was happy to sit idly and dream of them, serenely. Then came a restlessness and the feeling that it was not enough to take their gifts and do nothing in return. I must dedicate something of myself, the best part of me, to them. I started to write about them, and to draw pictures of them. Doing these things, I found they were still giving and I still receiving, for a great pleasure filled me when I was so engaged - I had found a new way of escape to them and from all else less worth while.
Thus it comes about that I have written this book. Not for material gain, welcome though that would be (you see I have not escaped entirely!); not for the benefit of my contemporaries, though if it brings them also to the hills I shall be well pleased; certainly not for posterity, about which I can work up no enthusiasm at all. No, this book has been written, carefully and with infinite patience, for my own pleasure and because it has seemed to bring the hills to my own fireside. If it has merit, it is because the hills have merit."
A. Wainwright died in 1991 at the age of 84.
Harry Griffin was a lifelong rock climber and one of the founding members of the Coniston Tigers climbing club. His career in journalism included a 53-year unbroken series of 'Country Diary' entries for The Guardian from 1951 until his death in 2004.
Peter Hardy edited The High Places in 2008. And anthology of Harry Griffin's articles for the Lancashire Evening Post.
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