A Lifetime of Mountains: The Best of A. Harry Griffin's Country Diary. [Illus by Clifford Harper.]

UK,12mo HB+dw/dj,illustrated 1st edn. [Complete number line 10 - 1 descending.] FINE+/FINE+.Virtually as new,despite book's age.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, monochrome photographic illustrated front panel of dw/dj with grey+ black lettered short and sub title respectively,grey spine/backstrip with white lettered title and Editor's name and a miniaturised thumbnail,repeated front cover photograph to its head,rear panel with monochrome montaged facsimile handwriting of columnist, facsimile newspaper column's cutting and a monochrome photographic portrait of columnist A. H. Griffin; with negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners - no nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright,crisp,clean and without blemish,ageing/toning or any foxing/spotting; contents bright,tight, clean.solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips - appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,unblemished,sharp-cornered, original grey boards with bright,crisp,blocked silver gilt lettering to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain blue endpapers.UK,12mo HB+ dw/dj,illustrated,1st edn,ix-xpp+1-198pp [paginated] includes a Foreword by Chris Bonnington with a newspaper column to its reverse,Editor's Introduction also with a written column to its reverse,10 chapters,each with varying numbers of written newspaper columns by Griffin,and each chapter with a woodcut type b/w illustrated headpiece,subject's b/w biographical photographs,facsimile b/w reproductions of his documents, handwriting etc. interspersed throughout the text and the book,a Postscript with editor's column. Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional,and even internally, the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its age. It really is an exceptional copy for its cleanliness and brightness. Second only to Alistair Cooke's 'Letter from America', Harry Griffin's Country Diary column for the Guardian was the longest-running regular feature in the British national media,running uninterrupted for some 53 years until his death in 2004. Consequently,this collection of the best of these columns is both a moving and remarkable digest of one man's long and varied life, and a matchless chronicle of a landscape and a community - the English Lake District - over the decades. Harry Griffin was an outdoor man: a climber,a walker,a wanderer, and this book will appeal to anyone who loves the wild parts of the British landscape.Here are the fells and mountain tarns seen by the winter skier,glittering under a dazzling coating of deep snow; here are the gritty challenges of hair-raising rock-climbs,the hullabaloo of traditional hound-trailing,and the peaceful soaring of a raven high above the fell-tops.There are occasional excursions from the Lakes to other stirring scenery in Britain,from the Scottish Highlands to the Yorkshire Dales. Over so many years the columns also build into a fascinating social history of rural life,vanished and present,from solitary hill shepherds to slate miners,mountain hares to mountain rescue teams.They chronicle the odd incursions of history-in-the-making, such as Donald Campbell's attempts on the water speed record in Bluebird on the melacholy,brooding expanse of Coniston Water,and even the unrepeatable achievement of two pre-war aviators in landing a light plane on the summit of Helvellyn.And above all they map the ceaselessly inquiring,humane sensibility of a man who loved the mountains and their remote,romantic beauty,but also wanted people to be able to live among them. Martin Wainwright,who knew Griffin well,has selected 150 of his best columns,and linked them together with a superb and revealing series of essays telling the story of Harry Griffin's remarkable life. Please contact seller,because of the weight of this item,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note, stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded, after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence, then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.