Lakeland's Best Views with Colin Hindle

Words on Wednesday

Our ‘Words on Wednesday’ events continue with Ullswater business man turned writer and illustrator, Colin Hindle.

Colin’s first book is not just any book; akin to medieval monks and their illuminated tomes, this is a  painstakingly researched, hand-written and illustrated guide to Lakeland’s Best Views. This, the first of four volumes, concentrates on ‘wow’ views around the Ullswater Valley. At 180 pages long, it has been a labour of love that has taken five years to complete.

The result is inspired by, and a companion to, Alfred Wainwright’s famous collection – a tactile, ‘pocket’ sized guide begging to be annotated and personalised by walkers and fell-lovers everywhere. But in this age of on-demand, next day delivery and instant gratification – why?

“In 2015 a great friend of mine (let’s call him Dave B) decided to walk the 214 Wainwrights in one year to fund raise for a cancer charity in memory of his mother. On reaching many of the summits with him I felt some sense of deflation; there was no view, or a compromised view, or the view was better earlier or later on the walk.

Despite owning the Wainwright Pictorial Guides for a decade it wasn’t until reading Hunter Davies’ excellent biography of him that I realised every page was designed as a complete entity so the reader never had to turn over on a windy fell to find the information they needed. Additionally how he had rewritten the first 120 pages of Book One in order to justify the right hand margins; and how frustrated he was in trying to achieve perfection, eventually accepting that no matter what he did there would always be errors. His books are objects of beauty in themselves, and it was this framework that inspired me to make this guide to the best views in Lakeland as a supplement to his epic work.”

Join Colin, Al and the Verey Books team for a reading followed by Q&A and conversation with Colin about his very own magnum opus.

Free entry – however please book your place as tickets are strictly limited.