Feet in the Clouds

Why would anyone in their right mind want to run up and down mountains in their spare time? It is a tribute to Richard Askwith's writing skills and sheer enthusiasm that his book actually makes the idea seem almost sensible to the, er, less energetic reader.

Fell-running has a long history and a venerable cast of characters (most, if not all, of whom are unknown to Britain's sport-obsessed public). Askwith tells the stories of these phlegmatic runners and their incredible achievements with real affection and not a little awe.

Bill Teasdale, a farmer and gamekeeper, won his first major race in 1949 at the Ambleside sports, and went on to win dozens more without the benefit of training. Joss Naylor - Iron Joss - became perhaps the greatest of the Lakeland fell-runners, despite several operations on his back, knees and feet. (He planned his runs by the light of paraffin lamps.) Kenny Stuart, a slight man weighing only 8 stone, was renowned for the elegance of his gait and the sheer speed of his running throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

More recently, other runners - from all over the country - have taken advantage of better equipment and more scientific training regimes to conquer the peaks and smash the records set by these remarkable men. Some might argue that this has taken some of the romance away from the sport, but undeniably spectacular feats of endurance have been accomplished; it is also the case that most people still run for pleasure and not for profit.

Richard Askwith is such a person. A 13-stone southerner with weak ankles, a poor head for heights, and a low threshold for pain, he nevertheless found himself drawn into this most excrutiating but friendly of pastimes. His accounts of the races he has endured and his quest to complete the Bob Graham Round (a 72-mile course over a particular sequence of 42 Lakeland peaks which must be completed within 24 hours) are particularly evocative.

Ultimately, Askwith's message is simple: in our complicated and frenetic world, there is much to be said for taking off into the beautiful hills and mountains of our country and running until your legs turn to jelly. 'Success depends on what you have in your head and your heart; the less you have in your beackpack the better.'