Grateful Thanks
Found Johns site while researching routes into the Cairngorms for my up and coming Charity Walk Scotlands 10 highest Munro's in 7 days to raise funds for Help for Heroes Stunning photographic journalism same age as John seems far to young to lose such a talent,
I used John's Pennine Way pages as a basis for walking the PW on odd weekends over three years. I'd just like to say "Thank you", they really helped and made the planning fun too.
Thank you John
I stumbled across John's E2E website several years ago when planning my own end to end walk. I found that his route was philisophically the most aligned with my own ideals; one that kept to the best of Britain's mountains and moors, quiet lanes and pretty villages. John took 16 years to complete his walk and presumably the same amount of time in recording it for others to follow.
I ended up adopting most of Johns route and walked it in Jul-Oct 2010. It was the most fantastic experience you could imagine and I am grateful that he took the time to write it all down. RIP
A true gentleman and lover of the high places
I was saddened to see the news of John’s death.
I met John over 20 years ago via a colleague who was a close friend of his (more about Graham later). I went on two walking weekends with both of them and friends from work. The first was in John’s beloved Lake District, where he quietly but confidently led a fairly novice group round Wetherlam and Swirl How. The second was in Snowdonia, where more or less the same group tackled the Horseshoe. This includes Crib Goch; luckily for an inexperienced group, we had perfect weather, but John was not all that happy with the scramble up. As he pointed out afterwards, he was a very experienced fellwalker (I’m sure he’d be the one to guide you off Haystacks in a mist), but he didn’t like rocky bits.
Hopefully those who knew John much better than I did would agree with my impression of him – a lovely quiet guy but with a wicked dry sense of humour underneath. As such, he was a perfect foil for Graham. (Graham –if you’re reading this, no apologies – it was a story you told against yourself, but now it can act as a small epitaph for John.) John and Graham were staying in a B&B in Keswick, and Graham had managed to get on the wrong side of the owner. John, I am sure, had been as usual the soul of good manners. When they checked out, the owner said to John, in gruff Wainwrightian tones, “Young man, you’re welcome back here any time. However, I don’t want to see that friend of yours again.”
Three years ago, I did a walk on the southern part of the Coniston Fells (unintentionally doing an off-piste struggle up a grass cliff on Great How – don’t attempt this unless, unlike me, you know what you’re doing, see http://www.conistonmountainrescue.co.uk/great_how.shtml). I thought of the group with whom I walked the northern section in 1990. At least one of them died several years ago, and now John has left us too. He produced so many beautiful photos; I will never forget the wonderful Scottish scene on the cover of one of John’s calendars which Graham gave me one year. Rest in peace John, it was a privilege to meet you, and thank you for the pleasure you gave us with all the photos and logs you carefully assembled and put on your website.
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.
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.
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.
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