Books I Have Read: All Or Nothing At All

 

When I was a teenager in the seventies, my mates and I would often camp at Seatoller near the end of the Borrowdale valley. After a day on the fells, we'd wander down to the Scafell Hotel (the awful Scawful) for a pint. Our path would take us down the side of a row of houses called Mountain View. I always wondered who lived there and was extremely jealous of whoever it was. The bar at the Scafell was small, scruffy and presided over by a grumpy gent who was willing to pretend that we were old enough to buy beer as long as we didn't cause any problems. It was until I was in my forties that I made my way back to the Scafell Hotel and it was awful no longer. The tiny bar area had vanished and in its place was a large well-decorated space and the packs of crisps and peanuts had been replaced by an extensive menu of pub fare. On one wall of the extended area is a board listing the winners of the Borrowdale fell race and their winning times. In the 1970s and 80s the race was dominated by one family, the Blands and one particular Bland, Billy sticks out as a particularly prolific winner, heading the race ten times between 1976 and 1988. 

Over the last ten years, as I've increasingly swapped my walking boots for fell-running shoes, I've come to realise that Billy Bland is not just a giant in the Borrowdale race, he is an outstanding athlete who, if he ran on tracks or the roads, would have had national recognition. On his retirement from running, Billy took up cycling and competed internationally at the highest level in age-related categories. All or Nothing at All, by Steve Chilton is a biography of Billy and it is well worth a read. 

At one level, this is a book about an extraordinary athlete. A man who won the British national fell-running championship, who held the record for the Bob Graham round for over thirty years and who still holds the record for the Borrowdale fell race. Before I go on, let's just think about the Borrowdale race. In his book on the Southern Fells, Alfred Wainwright suggests that a strong walker could start out at Rosthwaite and climb up over Glaramara and make their way round to Scafell Pikes. The Borrowdale does that, then drops down to Styhead, climbs over the Gables to Honister and then up Dale Head before heading back to the valley. Billy's record for this route is&nbsp2:34:38. Through the book, Billy suggests that he was not the strongest runner naturally, but he trained harder than anyone else. Even today in his late seventies he still rides 10,000 miles a year on his bike. 

The record of Billy's career is spelt out in some detail. He has a remarkable memory for the races he ran in, how he felt at the time and who he competed against. Where Billy's memory doesn't have all the answers, Steve Chilton's meticulous research fills in the gaps. However,  there is much more to this book than the record of an extraordinary athlete. This book is an important record of Lakeland Fell Running. In recent years, there has been a boom in running on the hills. Numerous companies run trail running events, some of which sell out faster than tickets for Glastonbury. There are many people who come to the Lakes to run who have never spent time on the hills previously and who know very little about the area or its history. I believe that it is important for people who come to run in the Lakes to learn something about the background of Fell Running and this book, or Steve's history of Fell Running, It's a Hill Get Over It would be good places to start. 

I'd take this a step further. Writers since Wordsworth have written about the Lakeland landscape in a way that more or less erases the people who live and work there. There are hundreds of guidebooks to the Lakes which will tell you about walks, pubs and places to visit, but which make little reference to the people and culture of the area. This is a point that James Reebanks, the Herdy Shepherd on Twitter makes eloquently in his book A Shepherd's Life. Billy Bland is a man of Borrowdale. He has spent all of his life living in a small area in this most beautiful part of the world. He worked at Honister Quarry for ten years and is a highly respected stonemason. Oh, and he lives in those houses that I used to walk past on my way to the pub in the seventies! 

Those of us who visit the Lake District regularly, who love the fells and the valleys must never forget that our playground is someone's home, someone's factory floor. We have an obligation to remember that and to learn something of their lives. 

This is also a book about change. The Lake District is undergoing a rapid transformation. The human environment is shifting as second-home owners price out local people. Local traditions and solidarities are under threat. Again, Reebanks makes a similar point. We need to cherish and work to preserve the solidarity of local communities. Have we learned nothing from the devastation of the pit villages in Co Durham where my background is rooted? Economic forces are not inevitable, they are just a demonstration of our values. The natural environment is also changing. Billy laments that there is much less variety in the wildflowers in the meadows and that there are far fewer songbirds in the valley. We don't just need to listen to scientists, we need to listen to a man who has lived for over seventy years in one area and who has seen massive changes and none of them for the better.

I've mentioned James Reebanks a couple of times. I don't know if Steve Chilton would be flattered or not, but I would place All or Nothing At All alongside A Shepherd's Life as important chronicles of the life of the Lake District and its people. On a side note, I'd pay good money to hear Billy and James Reebanks talking about the Lake District from their different perspectives. They'd agree on so much, but the disagreements would be very educational. Some promotor should think about this! So, in summary, this is an excellent book about an extraordinary fell runner. It should be read by anyone who loves to run in the hills. But, it is much, much more than this and should be widely read.

What are you waiting for? Go and buy a copy. 

Me with Billy in Skipton (fan boy selfie)

If you want to know more about the book and Billy's life and views, you can listen to the book launch on the Wild Ginger Podcast, which includes an interview with Billy.