April 16, 2009

One small step for mankind.

One door closes and another opens. A cliché, perhaps, but one that is bang on target when it comes to the story of yours truly and River Greta Writer. The writing of the book Ivver Sen and the inclusion in the book of a chapter on Joss Naylor led to a suggestion, from Joss, that I consider writing his biography.

He did not need to ask twice and the book ‘JOSS: The life and times of the legendary Lake District fell runner and shepherd’ will be published by River Greta Writer in September this year. I am currently in the middle of writing the final chapters of the book; as ever leaving time for what I call the Huckleberry Finn moments in my life, such as this afternoon. The sun is shining and Walla Crag, Derwentwater followed by a couple of beers in my favourite bar, Bar 26 on Lake Road, Keswick, beckon.

I thoroughly enjoy the process of writing the book, much more so than the research phase that involves the transcription of countless tape-recorded interviews. Still it does have its advantages. I spent the best part of January out in Spain with Joss – he holidays there for part of the winter - walking the mountains of the Costa Blanca and eating oranges straight off the tree. It’s tough, I know, but . . . 

Since returning from Spain writing Joss the book has been at the top of my list of priorities, that and helping to get Keswick Cricket Club, of which I’m chairman (www.keswickcc.co.uk) up and running for another season, together with penning irreverent cricket reports for our local newspaper The Keswick Reminder.

Since packing in my job with Cumbrian Newspapers and Cumbria Life magazine the other side of the recession in the sunset world that was the late summer of 2007, to establish River Greta Writer and to write full-time, the pace of life has slowed somewhat in the very much more creative and health-friendly environment of working from yam. I can recommend it.

Writing and publishing my first book, Ivver Sen, and working with the artist Keith Bowen was a joy and culminated with a talk in the Main House (200-plus attended, thank you one and all) and the exhibition at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake for the Words by the Water literature festival. I am hopeful that Joss the book will be launched at the theatre in September and am currently trying to make arrangements for Joss and myself to give a talk to coincide with that event.

Watch this space sometime in May for potential developments on that score.

Many of the illustrations for the Joss book come from Joss and Mary Naylor themselves and the countless draws that constitute their archive. But I am also working with the exceptional Lakeland photographer Val Corbett on images from Wasdale and Wasdale Head where Joss has lived, worked and run the fells all his life. I am sure that Val will produce impressive work for the book. We were out with Joss and his dog Spy yesterday in the little known valley of Blengdale where there were no fewer than seven golden eagles in the 1980s. I was hoping that a stray eagle might just have made a comeback but, sadly, there was nothing to be seen although it was good to see a bonnie little Northern Wheatear or two put in an appearance. There are also a couple of beautiful old sheepfolds (Val though they were amazing) on the back of Seatallan on the way to Blengdale. On a recent visit Joss and I looked over the wall and surprised a fox that immediately leapt out and over the fold and away into the distance pursued, in vain, by Joss’s sheepdog Spy. Also out Blengdale way, on Stockdale Moor, is the intriguingly named Sampson’s Bratfull. This is a long heap of stones in the middle of nowhere and legend has it that the stones were apparently dropped from the apron of a giant as he strode across the moor on what must have been a dark and stormy night. In truth Sampson’s Bratfull is a prehistoric burial site, one of a number of cairns or barrows in this area.

It’s all fascinating material and all will be appearing with so much more in glorious techni-colour and 200 pages of a high quality hardback book (similar in scale to Ivver Sen) to be published in September this year.

There’s still a lot more to do but right now I’m heading for Walla Crag. Writing is for cloudy or rainy days when the soft rays of sunshine do not soak through the window blinds or creep in at the edges, issuing an invitation and reminding you that there’s a world out there with a lot to be thankful for. Walla Crag it is then. 

But In the meantime here’s a short take from Joss the book and the chapter dealing in part with the time I spent with him in Spain in January this year. In this extract I refer to Joss’s legendary path-finding skills (not):

‘ . . . I quickly discovered that Joss’s navigational skills on the roads and in finding the start points for walks are considerably less efficient than they are in the Lakeland fells he knows so well. He was the one who had been coming to this part of the world for the best part of nine years but, unfortunately, our combined linguistic skills were not exactly wide ranging and tended to be restricted to one word. Worse still, it appeared to be the same word, ‘hola’, and this term of greeting, while it rolls smoothly off the tongue, can only get you so far when you are attempting to ask for directions on how to find your way to the foot of a mountain.

‘Mind you it might also help if you actually know the name of the mountain you are headed for. We invariably got lost, sooner or later, and I did not fully appreciate how many dead ends, one-way streets and vacant parking lots there are in the historic city of Orihuela which, for some reason, we always seemed to find ourselves driving around, striving to find a way out. We had no trouble at all in entering the city but – like minnows trapped in a jam jar – we could not find the exit route or, at least, the one we wanted. At one point Orihuela became synonymous in my tortured mind with Hell, a recurring nightmare from which there was no escape as the Devil in Chief (Joss the navigator) spiked me with his pronged instructions to turn left, right and then, when it was all too late and we had missed a turn “Dam! We should have gone down theer.”

‘On one occasion I recall pointing out to Joss that I could have driven from Keswick to London in the time it had taken us to locate the starting line for a mountain a relatively short distance away . . .’

 And finally, there will be another blog in mid May, hopefully giving details of events surrounding the launch of  ‘JOSS. The life and times of the legendary Lake District fell runner and shepherd’ as well as other priceless pieces of information such as how many wickets I have taken and runs scored in the cause of KCC. That shouldn’t take too long . . .

As ever I am always happy to receive your feedback and comments / observations / memories / yearnings etc. You can e-mail me on keithr@rivergretawriter.co.uk