● CERTAIN PHRASES, LIFTED FROM famous writers, ...

(Photograph taken in 1888) As a family, we first stayed at Rothay Manor in Ambleside in 1953 and it was then that I had my first experiences in fell walking, trout fishing and negotiating the nearby s

I was 17, a trainee surveyor earning £5 a week. Faced with a week’s leave without much cash to spend, I decided to try hitchhiking with my mate Gordon. We started at the gates of Liverpool’s Stanley A

We arrive at the top of High Cup Nick in the North Pennines. “It’s like the world starts just over there,” comments my friend Mark. He’s pointing down the U-shaped chasm of High Cup Gill, beyond whose

Fitting-out time is here again. Because I winter up in the Baltic where the sea still sometimes freezes, my season doesn’t really start until May. It was different when I berthed my 22ft wooden sloop

If we had to choose our “special place”, Andy and I would always choose Exmoor National Park. It’s a place we often escape to. Straddling the Somerset/Devon border, Exmoor’s coastline is littered with