Encounters
Encounters with Wainwright was the brainchild of Society committee member and Footsteps Editor David Johnson. He starts his Introduction to the book as follows. ‘Time was running out to capture first-hand memories of Alfred Wainwright, who died in January 1991. In 2012, I set out on a quest to find people who knew or met him, even if only briefly, to ask them for their recollections and then for their permission to publish these…. I thought there might be material for only a few (Footsteps) articles.’
Over a period of three years David gathered together information from people via visits, telephone calls, email and snail-mail and it soon became apparent that there would be far more material than could be covered in the Society’s magazine, resulting in a proposal for a full colour book to be published to include all the contributors’ stories. The Committee agreed to David’s proposal that any profits from the book would be donated to Animal Rescue Cumbria, the charity that Alfred and Betty Wainwright supported wholeheartedly. Encounters, as we know it, is the result of this major project which, by the end of 2021 had raised over £9,000 for Animal Rescue Cumbria.
Apart from the mammoth task of collating all of the memories and reflections of 120 contributors, David did all of the editing and preparation of the book and, with the help of other Society volunteers who between them did necessary design work, proof reading, and print organisation, the only costs involved were the actual printing and distribution. The Society nevertheless took a considerable risk by funding the project as potential sales were entirely unknown. However, it wasn’t long after publication, in 2016, that sales revenue exceeded the initial costs and books have continued to sell ever since, with 1,500 copies sold so far. The publication was a Runner-up in the 2017 Lakeland Book of the Year awards.
In her Introduction to the book, Jane King, daughter of Betty Wainwright wrote ‘We are very grateful to David and The Wainwright Society for the enormous amount of work and determination that has gone into making this project a reality. We are also very grateful to all those people who came forward to tell their own stories and so make it possible. By sharing such a wealth and variety of experiences they have given us all new insights into AW’s life.’ In her foreword to Memoirs of a Fellwanderer, Betty Wainwright wrote that AW was a ‘sensitive, shy man who sought anonymity, hiding himself behind a gruff exterior.’ The stories in Encounters reflect this extremely well.
The Society would like to thank everybody who contributed to this project, to those volunteers who gave their time freely to bring it to fruition, to those who contributed their stories, and of course those who have bought the book.
Copies of the book are available to order on-line or via an order form by visiting our Shop.
