John Alfred Butler

Thank you John!

Thank you John for many enjoyable years on the internet.
We have followed your site [and passed emails between us] ever since I came online back in 1999.
I am so sorry that we never met, your travels have given us much pleasure!
As I am disabled I always used your site to relive the 'old days' when I was fit and visited these places.
Your End-to End walk was the one we visited the most and, the others gave us many an evening of joy.
Thank you from the heart John, you made our lives a bit more special.
Rest in peace, you will be sorely missed.
Eddie & Maur Spicer.
South Hams.

Eddie Spicer

1 week ago

Mark Steven Thomas

Was searching for info on walking the Pennine Way and came across John's page. Really really useful info and was sad to see that he had passed away.

I didn't know this man apart from a brief read of his website, but I feel he is going to be missed.

Thank you John for the great info on the Pennine Way.

RIP walking man.

Mark Thomas

2 weeks ago

From Mike's Eulogy at John's memorial service.

As many of you know. two of John's great passions were hill-climbing and photography which he was able to combine with great success, often following, quite literally, in the footsteps of one of his heroes Alfred Wainwright. But where Wainwright produced his fantastic hand-written guides John produced an ever-expanding website cataloguing all his walks and climbs, and illustrating them with the most stunning photographs. And it didn't end there. He also had an interest in, and an eye for good, urban architecture.

John's interest in comedy and live performance made him an annual visitor to the Edinburgh Fringe, though to say visitor makes these trips sound like casual holidays. In fact they were anything but. John organised his Edinburgh trips with the kind of meticulous planning that made military manoeuvres seem slap-dash. The Fringe prospectus was trawled on the week it came out, shortlists were drawn up, timetables created, tickets bought and accommodation booked well in advance. John had it off to a fine art. Even spontaneity was built into the plan, with time allowed and free slots left for buying tickets for anything which came to his attention or got rave reviews while he was up there. Michele and I went with him a couple of times and John set an ambitious pace. Enjoying comedy, it seemed, was a serious business. But it worked, and we did all enjoy ourselves very much, even if I didn't quite make it down to breakfast every morning.

I'll never forget those holidays and I think, in a small way, Edinburgh - and The Pleasance courtyard in particular - is going to miss John next year.

Mike Brown (Close Friend)

October 27, 2011