In Blog 15 I uploaded some messages from the group that are difficult to find because you have to scroll down such a long way to reach them. Here are some more that have appeared since:
Chris Jesty, 31/8/2020 [referring to a photograph of the Coast to Coast maps]: In 1993 and 1994 I worked on these maps for Michael Joseph. I found the relevant correspondence in my computer recently, and there is quite a lot of it.
Chris Butterfield, 1/9/2020: I think the Southern Fells takes the crown for the highest impression number, as it was the biggest selling book until the Coast to Coast TV series aired in 1990, then the ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ book beat it.
Chris Jesty, 2/9/2020: According to my royalty statements 13,000 copies of the second edition of ‘A Coast to Coast Walk’ were sold between 2010 and 2019, which works out at 1300 copies per year. This does not compare with the 100,000 copies of ‘The Southern Fells’ that were sold between 1960 and 1979, which works out at 5000 copies per year.
Chris Jesty, 22/9/2020 [refering to a drawing of Nether Bridge]: There are almost identical drawings on page 168 of ‘Westmorland Heritage’ and in ‘Kendal in the Nineteenth Century’ (principal drawing number 5).
Chris Jesty, 6/10/2020: ‘Dartmoor 365’ is a remarkable book in which the national park is divided into 365 one-mile squares and a page is devoted to each of them. This sounds like a crazy idea, but it works surprisingly well.
From a letter sent by Wainwright in 1975: I am sorry to decline your invitation, but due partly to extreme pressure of work and mainly to a profound reluctance to engage in any form of public speaking, I cannot accept it. I know my limits, and indulgence in addressing an audience is way beyond my talents. But I appreciate your kindness in asking, and consider it an honour.
Chris Jesty, 18/1/2021: Throughout Wainwright’s Lakeland guides selected mountains are blessed with annotated drawings of the views from their summits. These drawings are excellent for identifying places in the Lake District on days of average visibilty, but useless for identifying distant places that are only visible on days of exceptional clarity.
For this purpose you need to use the internet. Go to http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org, then to ‘Panoramas’, ‘England’, and ‘Cumbrian Lakes’. The drawings that appear are arranged in a clockwise direction, starting in the north. You won’t be able to read the names because they are too small, but you can obtain an enlargement by clicking the relevant part of the view. In theory it should be possible to do this in the mountains using a mobile phone, but I have not met anyone who has done so.
Arran Sutherland: Thanks Chris. I didn’t realise that the site was still live, but I found it years ago and remember it was a real treasure trove. Even though they are computer generated from the contour data they are real works of art in their own right. I wouldn’t rely on the phone signal to use them directly from the website in the mountains, but they could be saved as a file or photo to the phone in advance.
Wayne Dornan, 25/1/21 [about Happy Memories]: This arrived today but I wasn’t expecting such an existential introduction. Tonight I’ll be delving into the mind of Chris Jesty.
John Burland, 7/2/21: No wonder the Yorkshire Dales has been voted the best National Park in Europe.
Chris Jesty, 9/2/21: In that case, why have only 383 copies of the second edition of ‘Walks in Limestone Country’ been sold, when 177,000 copies of the second edition of the Lakeland guides have been sold?
Chris Butterfield, 17/7/21: Behind the scenes guidebook designs by Michael Joseph for the new 1992 launch. How many were aware that Chris Jesty did the prelims? It’s all revealed here…
John Fearn: The note about justification in image 6 is interesting. Was CJ producing this lettering by hand? In which case why couldn’t that paragraph be justified left and right? Or was “CJ script” a word processing font that only CJ had access to?
Chris Butterfield, 18/7/21: Good question. Yes Chris produced and justified the whole page by hand. He had no computer in those days.
Chris Jesty, 19/7/21: The lettering I used for the prelims in 1992 was that which I developed in the books I produced in the 1980s. I hadn’t learned to imitate Wainwright’s hand-lettering, but the publishers were happy with it. The books can be seen by going to the section entitled ‘My books’ in the website chris-jesty.co.uk.
Chris Butterfield, 17/7/21: Behind the scenes guidebook designs by Michael Joseph for the new 1992 launch. How many were aware that Chris Jesty did the prelims? It’s all revealed here…
John Fearn: The note about justification in image 6 is interesting. Was CJ producing this lettering by hand? In which case why couldn’t that paragraph be justified left and right? Or was “CJ script” a word processing font that only CJ had access to?
Chris Butterfield, 18/7/21: Good question. Yes Chris produced and justified the whole page by hand. He had no computer in those days.
Chris Jesty, 19/7/21: The lettering I used for the prelims in 1992 was that which I developed in the books I produced in the 1980s. I hadn’t learned to imitate Wainwright’s hand-lettering, but the publishers were happy with it. The books can be seen by going to the section entitled ‘My books’ in the website chris-jesty.co.uk.
Chris Jesty, 14.9.21: In an attempt to make Brian Kershaw’s letter easier to read I pressed Ctrl and +. Then I found that the top part of the screen was so full of symbols I could only read two or three lines at a time. If I tried to scroll down I would miss a few lines. I couldn’t make sense of Wainwright’s reply either because the right-hand part was missing. In 1976 all my letters took the form of pieces of paper, which were much easier to read.
Chris Butterfield, 19.9.21: Chris Jesty is a good friend friend of mine, and in my humble opinion produced the best revisions of Wainwright’s guides. Over a ten year period he delicately updated Wainwright’s original masterpieces. One of his objectives was to make changes only when required, and retain the look and feel of the originals as closely as possible.
Chris has kindly signed a small number of his books for the group. For those of you who own the second edition guidebooks, this book complements them nicely.
https://www.alfredwainwright.co.uk/…/happy-memories…/
Andy Beck: I fully agree about the Chris Jesty revisions of the PG’s, in keeping with the original versions, revising details where needed and not feeling the need to hack about with AW’s clever designs or adding unnecessary content.
Lesley Ritchie: Ordered one on your fab website. Can’t wait for it to arrive. I love Chris Jesty’s beautiful work.
Chris Butterfield: It’s on its way to you. Chris is chuffed to bits
John Fearn: “Happy Memories” is a fascinating book. I enjoyed it enormously. Highly recommended.
Chris Butterfield: Kind words John. Chris will be so pleased when he reads your comments.
Chris Jesty: I am. [After I sent this I realised that this was the last car registration number that I mentioned in chapter 2 of Happy Memories.]
Julie Rainford: I agree 😊
Stevie Vegas, 25.9.21 [under a photograph taken in my sitting room]: Still needs some pictures on those hooks.
Chris Jesty: I have put up another one.
Stevie Vegas: great! Enjoyed your book. You’ve lived quite the life.
To Clive Hutchby 15 July, 2021: I have never before seen such a brilliant combination of a panorama and a photograph.
From Clive Hutchby: Wow, Chris, what a compliment from the man who put together ‘The View From Scafell Pike’ (and a number of other great panoramas).
To John Burland 11 October, 2021: I was very interested in your photograph of the exterior of Nunnington Hall. It made me wonder how the window above the door came to be exactly level with the gap between the ground-floor and first-floor windows to the right of it.
From Chris Butterfield 23 Otober, 2021: I am delighted to announce that Chris Jesty and I are planning more fells walks. Even low level walks that are rich in history. Chris hasn’t revisited many of the locations since he revised the guides. I look forward to increasing my knowledge of the local area, and how Chris revised certain routes. Everything will be shared with the group, website and other media. The attached photo is from a recent walk to Whitbarrow Scar. The walk that leads to this fabulous view (that many of you will recognise) features in Chris’s revised Outlying Fells guidebook 🙂
Chris Jesty, 26/10/21 [following on from a message about the Lake District pound]: The first time I heard of the Lake District pound was in March, 2017 when I received an email from the director of the Lakes Currency Project asking if they could use parts of the Scafell Pike panorama on their banknotes, but they never did.
Chris Butterfield, 29/10/21: Evening all. Here is a previously unpublished photo of the one and only – Chris Jesty. I will let you all guess where he is. Chris and I have done a few walks together, and we have more planning when the weather improves. There’s a purpose behind each walk, so they are very educating.
Chris Jesty, 30/10/21: If you compare the cairn in this photograph with that on page 38 of The Outlying Fells of Lakeland you will see how well it was drawn and how it has remained unchanged for 47 years. [After I sent this I realised that I should have added ‘(unlike the person standing next to it)’ at the end.]
Peter Valli, 22/11/21: Great that you could spend what looks like a fine day with the very dapper Mr. Jesty!
Lesley Ritchie, 22/11/21: How lovely to share walkies with him. I love his revised guides and I’ve used them for all my 214’s.
Chris Jepson-Brown: Chris never fails to impress me with his sartorial elegance. His clothes look so cool.
Peter Wilday: That’s the first duffel coat I’ve seen in decades.
Chris Butterfield, 28/11/21: This is a clip from the recent Antiques Roadshow, and features a lovely Wainwright drawing. Chris Jesty copied the segment to disc and mailed it to me for the group to watch. He thought the group might find it interesting…..and he’s quite right. Thanks Chris 😊
Chris Jesty, 15/1/22 [about a change in the list of fells on the back cover of Book One]: No error is involved here. In the sixth paragraph of my introduction to the seond edition I wrote that summit altitudes have been corrected where they differ by five feet or more from the latest Ordnance Survey figures. Occasionally this affects the sequence when fells are arranged in order of altitude.
Chris Jesty, 30/1/22 [about North Wales Sketchbook]: He was working on this book when he stayed in my cottage in Dolgellau in 1979.
Karen Curwen, 23/3/22 [under a photograph of Andrew Nicholl and myself]: There must be such a lot of history and experience in those two heads.
Chris Butterfield: Old school gentlemen that they don’t make anymore.
Chris Jesty, 3/4/22 [under a photograph of a bookcase]: I also need a bookcase. I couldn’t buy one in Kendal, but I found one in the internet made by Oakwood Furniture. It arrived three days ago and consisted of a large number of parts. I was unable to join them together, and I couldn’t find anyone who could.
Peter Wilday, 4.4.22: I think you’re like AW, Chris. Hopeless at anything practical, but brilliant in your own field. I truly admire the work you’ve done with your revisions.
Chris Jesty, 8/4/22: Thank you for your comments. Chris Butterfield usually comes to my aid whenever I can’t get something to work.