This anthology brings together some of the finest writing about the Peak District through the ages, illustrated by period art works, engravings, vignettes and photographs. Compiled and introduced by Peak District expert Roly Smith, it revives many forgotten descriptions of what many people believe is the finest, most varied and best-loved landscape in the whole of Britain.
From William Camden to Daniel Defoe, Sir Gawain to Lord Byron, literary visitors have long been astonished by the sublime wonders of the Peak. The coming of railways proved another great impetus for writers and tourists. Ruskin extolled the beauties of the Peak, while novelists Charlotte Brontė and George Eliot used closely-observed Peakland settings for some of their most vivid narratives. Topographical writers including Edward Bradbury, Thomas Tudor and James Croston enthusiastically described the delights of the Derbyshire scenery to the ever-increasing stream of Victorian visitors.
The flowering of guidebook and topographical writing in the twentieth century also added to the Peak's outdoor literature, which still rates as among the finest in the country. Many books were produced covertly encouraging what was known as 'the gentle art of trespass'. They included works by GHB Ward, the 'King' of the Sheffield Clarion Ramblers; Derby's pioneering rock climber, Ernest Baker; and Patrick Monkhouse, deputy editor of the Manchester Guardian. Later writers have continued this tradition of fine outdoor writing and are represented here by Hannah Mitchell, Sally Goldsmith, folk singer Ewan Maccoll, Manchester Evening News editor and broadcaster Brian Redhead, and longstanding Guardian Country Diarist Roger Redfern, among others.
