In 1938, in the shadow of possible hostilities and long before he became renowned for his 'pictorial guides', Alfred Wainwright decided to go for a walk. This was not just any walk: he chose to walk over 200 miles from Settle to Hadrian's Wall and back. He wrote an account of his trek, Pennine Journey, not as a guidebook but as a commentary on the life and folk of the Dales.
In 1998, as close to the 60th anniversary as possible, A. Walker undertook the same walk and, like Wainwright, undertook the walk solo. The sense of being alone became cathartic and inspired this personal reflection. The account looks at life's trials and tribulations through the medium of 11 days spent with his own thoughts, with no distractions to blunt the experience. The sense, from time to time, of having his back to the wall found a great medicine in following Wainwright back to the wall.
Author:
Yorkshire-born author A Walker's writing centres around the earlier works of Alfred Wainwright, particularly his Pennine Journey, which he had undertaken in 1938. Walker retraced the route and found it became the inspiration for Back to the Wall, a personal reflection that uses the walk as a microcosm of life's journey. Walker's interpretation of his 1998 trek takes the form of a rambling account that compares and contrasts with Wainwright's original book using his own views and opinions as the basis of a thought-provoking and amusing yarn. Walker also wrote his historically based guide to the walk published as In Wainwright's Footsteps: The Pennine Journey
Walker, A.: - Yorkshire born author A Walker's writing centres around the earlier works of Alfred Wainwright, particularly Wainwright's Pennine Journey, which he had undertaken in 1938. 60 years after Alfred Wainwright's original trek Walker retraced the route and found it became the inspiration for his book "Back to the Wall", a personal reflection that uses the walk as a microcosm of life's journey. Walker's interpretation of his 1998 trek takes the form of a rambling account that compares and contrasts with Wainwright's original book using his own views and opinions as the basis of a thought-provoking and amusing yarn. In something of a repeat of Wainwright's original story, Walker's manuscript then lay unpublished for nearly 18 years. Then a chance meeting with an editor revitalised Walker's intention to see the account in print. Walker also began working on his historically based guide to the walk published as "In Wainwright's Footsteps: The Pennine Journey". Published originally as an e-book the guide concentrates more on the history of the route than providing an insight into the past of the rural life of the dales. Unlike the re usual guide the book considers where we have been rather then where we should go. After repeating the walk in 2106 Walker was prompted to write an updated account, this time from the viewpoint of a walker he met along the way. Still being written, this places Walker as an observer of a walker seeking solace and solitude struggling to cope with the rigours of a life that has gone awry. "Back to the Wall Too" will be published during 2017.
