One of the most unusual successes in northern publishing in recent years was Amy Bateman’s Forty Farms, an award-winning photographic record of the lives of Cumbrian farmers which metamorphosed into an immersive and evocative exhibition of pictures supported by film, words, sound and crafted products. It was produced by Keswick-based publisher and Countrystride broadcaster David Felton who set up his company Inspired by Lakeland “to make books and gifts inspired by the wild places I love”.
Now in a lavishly illustrated follow-up, International Photography Awards winner Tom McNally has teamed up with Felton the writer on a journey to record the stories of forty fells in Cumbria.
Felton publications are full of art
Felton publishes books that are works of art to treasure, like my own favourite, Sketching a Year in Lakeland, an illustrated journal in pen, ink and watercolour by mountaineer, runner and artist Liz Wakelin. Forty Fells: Conversations about change in the Lake District mountains goes beyond anything else in print though, it presents a visual record of the Cumbrian uplands at a time of profound change. It is genuinely an attempt to document everything that matters about the Lake District today.
Felton was carried up Cat Bells at the age of six months; he has since walked all the Wainwrights more than once, and spent a lifetime exploring the high places and the valleys in between them. So as a publisher as well as a climber, he says that when the publishing dust settled on Amy Bateman’s book, there was not much doubt about which title should succeed it.
Cumbrian mountains have been a constant in my life, through good times and bad, have been an enduring source of challenge, inspiration and joy; and have led me north to settle in this place that long ago captured my heart.
Love for the mountains and their rescue teams
Heart indeed, for this is a labour of love on the part of writer/publisher and photographer alike, Tom McNally shining a light on the fells in a completely new and often startling way. Both words and pictures tell the stories of the first settlers, who crafted axes from Pike o’ Stickle greenstone; of climbers from the golden age of mountaineering on Great Gable; of Romans at isolated Hard Knott; of campaigners who secured access onto Latrigg; and of the many people who work and live in the fells today.
They also document the tireless work of the Lake District’s mountain rescue teams – McNally is a volunteer with the Keswick team – and highlight the efforts of conservationists restoring nature to the fells. Though you won’t find here any of those ubiquitous ‘hidden gems’, those out of the way places that need no more publicity, “though we have noted the impacts of social media on a few ‘gems’ that have already been over-shared,” says McNally. There’s an interview with the academic studying the impact of ‘social honeypotting’ in the Lake District. “Some of the greatest challenges in shooting for this book have been ethical.”
And that includes his role as a mountain rescuer:
While it allows me privileged access to document sometimes life-changing events, it is important to know where the line between rescuer and documentarist lies.
Breathtaking photography
What you will find are breathtaking shots from extreme angles, particularly on Great Gable, Napes Needle, and Needle Ridge; unfamiliar views of very familiar hills and tarns and valleys; an astonishing photo of Castle Crag from above, surrounded by Borrowdale’s Atlantic rainforest. There are startling shots of the flooded depths of Coniston’s Coppermines, and scenes from the Lake District Ski Club that prove there’s still snow and ice in the Lake District occasionally.
There are photographic profiles of shepherds at the Loweswater gather, endurance athletes on the Winter Spine race, hostel life at England’s loneliest house and ecologists nurturing the Borrowdale rainforest. There are conversations with farmers, fell-runners and foresters; Wainwright-baggers, deer stalkers and authors; climbers, conservationists and carol singers in all corners of the county, from Scafell Pike to Pillar, Cat Bells to Blencathra, Helvellyn to Haystacks. Is your favourite fell one of the forty? Well, you’ll have to buy the book to find out, but here’s a hint: not all of the 40 are Wainwrights.
The research is detailed and impeccable, the writing as much an art form as the photography. Forty Fells is indeed a visual record of the Cumbrian uplands at this time of profound change, but it’s much more than a traditional coffee-table book for all its size and format. There are tales here to inspire, challenge and ponder as well as entertain.
Forty Fells is available for pre-order from https://www.inspiredbylakeland.co.uk/, with an accompanying exhibition at Rheged, Penrith, from the end of October.
All photos by Tom McNally, used with permission
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