Back to my roots

River Greta Writer’s third book in three years will be published in the spring of 2011 to coincide with the Words by the Water Literature Festival at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake. I had earlier stated that I intended to publish the book in the Autumn of this year (September) but further examination of the project – and, in truth, a lot of sunshine which distracted me – means that I am not ready to publish.

I won’t at this stage be over informative about its content because it is still very much a work in progress. However, I can tell you that a central theme is trees. Yes, trees. Not trees as in the Sixties’ skit by Monty Python’s Flying Circus (‘The Larch’) but very special trees of every description in the Lake District and Cumbria. The book will cover the places and the people linked with those trees, the history, the stories, the impact of trees in the landscape, their importance in the scheme of things and the effect of extreme weather on the trees themselves; trees, in fact, as a barometer for our time and times past.

So it’s a sort of ‘Ivver Sen’ with branches, roots and offshoots. And Joss puts in a celebrity appearance to add to the blend and the continuity.

At this moment in time I haven’t the faintest idea what it will be called or what the front cover will look like although the book designer Gary Burge, of Walker Ellis, is beginning to get excited about images. I am again working alongside the photographer Val Corbett and am sure that her superb images will go a long way towards what we believe will be a fascinating follow on from ‘Ivver Sen’ the award-winning (Lakeland Book of the Year 2009) and ‘Joss,’ the biography of the legendary Lakeland shepherd and fell runner Joss Naylor, of Wasdale Head.

As you will see from Breaking News elsewhere on this website Joss and another famous local fell runner, Kenny Stuart, of Threlkeld, will be appearing at the Keswick Mountain Festival on Wednesday, May 19. I will be introducing Joss and Kenny and then interviewing them on stage in the Main House at The Theatre by the Lake. At the time of writing it was a virtual sell-out. Which is nice.

Speaking of which . . .

Now that spring is here on the nice days I walk by the River Greta (what I call my Huckleberry Finn moments) or over the fells and faraway, go fishing, garden, and play or watch cricket, although not all at the same time. And on the not so nice days I write and research my books while leaving time for television watching, theatre-going, cinema going, curry eating, beer / wine drinking, chocolate eating (that’s a lot of eating and drinking) and reading; latterly Andrew Rawnsley’s ‘The End of the Party’, his account of the years of New Labour and the Blair/Brown years, highly appropriate as we approach the general election. For what it’s worth I intend to vote Liberal Democrat, dismayed with at the game of ping pong being played out for all eternity by Labour and Conservative without any sense of vision amid the antics of Parliamentary expenses sleaze. Not to mention the wars.

Yes, we have the vote but is this really a democracy? But that’s enough of the politics.

New Zealand nights

Earlier this year I left the permafrost of the Lake District for the warmth of a New Zealand summer.  The objective was to have a good damn time while keeping half an eye on the backcloth for a potential work of fiction to be written in the not too distant future. Essentially it was one long holiday in a wonderful country where I walked to my heart’s content on The Milford Trek (billed as ‘the finest walk in the world’ – it isn’t, Walla Crag overlooking Derwentwater is different and better, it’s a subjective thing); Mount Cook National Park (loved it and climbed Mount Ollivier – the first peak to be climbed by Sir Edmund Hilary as he prepared for Everest); Lake Tekapo (the Mount John observatory) and coastal walks in Abel Tasman National Park.

At Lake Tekapo you can go on a midnight excursion (by bus) from the village to the top of Mount John (there’s a road to the top on the other side of the mountain) and there enjoy a tour of the observatory organised by a local company called Earth & Sky. You can look through the telescopes at the southern night sky and there’s expert advice and information from members of the observatory team. It was a fantastic experience and quite amusing when the expert stargazers bemoaned the fact that the moon rising in the night sky was ruining the ‘light’. I enjoyed looking at the craters on the moon and announced that I could see Wallace and Gromit on one of their cheese-mining expeditions, courtesy of a patched up rocket built in their back garden shed in deepest Wigan. Nasa nivver had it so good!

I watched a fair amount of cricket (New Zealand v Australia as well as regional and local club games) some Super 14 rugby union – Hurricanes v The Lions at Westpac Stadium, Wellington; visited lots of museums and art galleries (Te Papa in Wellington is exceptional) went to lots of arts festival events (also in Wellington), was impressed by the art deco in Napier, lunch on the harbour side at Auckland, vineyard visits and so much more. And I swam in lakes and rivers and the sea everywhere I went, although the water of the Clinton River on the Milford Trek is so cold it hurts and then it hurts some more. The weather was magnificent. There was only one morning’s rain the whole time I was there and that set off the forest on the Milford Trek a treat when the sun broke through on wet leaves and moss.

In Te Papa there was a moment of high humour when a Polynesian guide, standing with his back to an exhibit of the very big Moah bird, announced to his small introductory tour party (including me): “The large, fat bird behind me was hunted to extinction by the Maoris.”

Unfortunately, just as he uttered these words, a very large woman hove into view in the space directly between the guide and the aforementioned moah. I nearly died on the spot but the translation of the word ‘bird’ in English was clearly lost on the Germans in our group.

I was in NZ for the best part of five weeks, driving around the country in a hire car and staying mostly in hotels (you can’t beat a little ‘luxury’). I do not say this lightly: It was the best holiday I have ever had. Great country and very hospitable people who will invite you into their homes to stay after you have only known them for five minutes.

I have always wanted to visit New Zealand and since I returned to the UK some people have asked if I would live there. The answer is ‘no’, not because I don’t appreciate NZ (I do, very much so) but because my home is England and, more specifically, Keswick in the English Lake District. And my roots are embedded in Cumbria.

Roots count for a lot. And this will hopefully be readily apparent when I publish my next book (roots pun intended, sickeningly so) in the first week of September. The trees book will be the same in size and stature (hardback, full colour, 240-plus pages) as ‘Ivver Sen’ and ‘Joss’ and will also retail for £25. I hope readers find it as informative, entertaining and enlightening as they appear to have found its forerunners.

As ever, if you would like to respond to this blog or make any other observations (good or bad – I’ll appreciate the former and ignore the latter) then please drop a line to keithr@rivergretawriter.co.uk

Worryingly, I’m still awaiting my first response. So, not for the first time, is there anybody out there in cyberspace?