A BOOK dedicated to fellwalkers and to those who have completed the 214 Wainwright Fells has been published after 12 years in the making.

Bursting with photographs and mementos of each climb, The Wainwright Summits in Pictures was written by university lecturer and author Dr Alan Berkeley Thomas.

Inspired by the unique and special Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells hand-written by Alfred Wainwright, the Great Sankey resident felt that the desire to reach the top of any fell (a regional word for hills and mountains) was something of an achievement – and that the idea of climbing all of them, just as Wainwright had done, was ‘literally unthinkable’.

The 71-year-old said: “In those days everything about Lakeland (the Lake District) was magic.

“The quaint stone walls and buildings, the mysterious lakes and romantic tarns, the fells with their fascinating names and the hidden summits with their heady whiff of danger.”

Juggling bringing up a family, coping with a demanding work schedule and a continuing love affair with the Scottish Highlands it was not until Alan retired that he set the goal of climbing each of the 214 fells.

Alan’s aim was to complete them by his 70th birthday in 2018.

By October 2016 the Norbreck Close resident had reached his 200th fell, Steeple.

“The end was in sight,” added Alan, who has lived in Warrington for 17 years.

“Only then did I dare think about where to finish and of the fells remaining.

“I chose Esk Pike as the final one because it was a high fell in the heart of the Lake District.”

However, to Alan’s surprise, there was a part of him that did not want to finish.

There was a root of unease and fear that he would be losing something that had become so important to him for such a long period of time.

On July 24, 2017 Alan, who describes himself as a ‘hopeful traveller’, reached the top of Esk Pike and on his return he said he felt a bit ‘disorientated’ but also had a sense of relief.

With the adventure over, he then committed himself to publishing a 240-page book filled with more than 400 images of each Wainwright summit that he had taken over two decades.

Alan, a former Manchester University lecturer, said “I hope that perhaps this book might be a good momento to keen walkers, or to those who want to attempt to climb all of the Wainwrights.

“Now that this journey is over for me and I have no particular inclination to repeat it, but walking isn’t over.

“As far as I’m concerned I won’t be stopping until I’m stopped.

“And if I’m still around afterwards I will at least have these pictures to remind me of how it once was when I was a hopeful traveller.”

The Wainwright Summits in Pictures is available now on Amazon.