From the My Favourite series - favourite stories on different themes by
different authors, each volume edited by a celebrity in the field. "The
stillness seemed to be not of this world... the majesty of the mountains
below, and close to us, is not to be conceived. We now beheld the whole
mass of Great Gavel from its base - the Den of Wastdale at our feet - a
gulf immeasurable; Grasmere and the other mountains of Crummock;
Ennerdale and its mountains; and the Sea beyond!" Wordsworth looking out
from Scafell Pikes over the miles of rock and water which were his
inspiration, opens this exhilarating collection of Lakeland stories. The
power implicit in this stretch of country has long attracted great
writers. Here came Dickens, to write a delectable story of two London
apprentices worsted by a 'trumpery little mountain'; Coleridge, to
delight in a fearsome rock climb; Beatrix Potter, to record with
delicate precision the commonplaces of her daily life.The stories range
from a sly dialect tale to a poet's description of a town transformed by
snow. A Victorian writer breathes life into an old tragedy; a woman
remembers a bleak poverty in Barrow. Here are Lakeland writers whose
tales rooted in feeling for the past - Ransome remembering his boyhood,
Walpole with high adventure, Graham Sutton's engaging Flemming family,
Melvyn Bragg himself describing Cumbria at the turn of the century. And
always here, always dominant, are the lakes and fells of which
Wainwright writes with love: "Always there will be the lonely ridge, the
dancing beck, the silent forest... The fleeting hour of those who love
the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal."
