UKC

Hi all,

Im hoping someone can help me.

Years ago i had a book about climbing in the Lake district, the author wrote beautifully about the lakes and wrote very poetically about various crags and the climbing in general. Unfortunately i gave it away when moving house, now i want to read it again!

From memory i dont think it was a famous climbers autobiography, more of an ode written by a normal climber about his days in the lake district (maybe involving his son). The closest comparisons i can think of are "the living mountain"  or "feet in the clouds"  

Every time i try and search on google all it brings up is guide books. 

Does anyone have any ideas about what it could be?

I seem to remember it having a yellow and back cover? Maybe the silhouette of a crag? 

Native Stones by David Craig?

It's not all about the Lakes, but some of it is, and the rest of your description fits.

Wow that was quick!

Thank you so much! 😊 

Edit: that's 100% the right answer and I'm now going to buy it and reread it

No problem. There are lots of second-hand copies about online. A good book (slated by Jim Perrin though). 

Predictably…

It’s a fantastic book. Met him a couple of times whilst up in Lancaster. A nice man.

Great book. My Dad gave me a hard back copy of it this Christmas. My Dad was a student at Lancaster when David Craig taught there. I think he was a big inspiration for him and other students.

David Craig was a really lovely bloke and a massively important figure at Lancaster University, advocating for the teaching of Creative Writing, as well as teaching some interesting and provocative modules on socialism and literature.

To OP: Native Stones is ace!

I was fortunate enough to do quite a lot of scrambling with him in the Lakes in the summer of 1992, and several V Diffs and Severes on Pikes Crag near Scafell Crag. He was much older than me, but very steady for his age.

Maybe I should re-read 'Native Stones' but I don't remember it as a Lake District book as such (as I would the books by Harry Griffin) & the bits that I remember most clearly were about the Cairngorms. But its 20 years or more since I last read it.

It might have got blurred in my mind with Roger Hubank’s Hazard’s Way. A phenomenon AKA senility.