THE Pennine Journey trodden by Wainwright on the eve of World War Two has stepped into the digital age.

AW's 200-mile, 11-day circular walk from Settle to Hadrian's Wall and back again was retraced by Ilkley author Andrew Lambert 60 years to the day since Wainwright embarked on his journey, at the age of 31.

In the 15-or-so years since then, keen walker Andrew has devoted many hours to researching the villages, dales and people encountered by AW in 1938. The resulting e-book - In Wainwright's Footsteps: The Pennine Journey - has just been published on Amazon.

"The route description draws on the history of the places en route that Wainwright visited and puts it together in a guidebook with a difference," explains Andrew, 58, who is married to Sue and works at Skipton Building Society's head office.

"Instead of telling where to go, it tells more of where we have been. It doesn't need to be used as a guidebook, it is just an entertaining coffee table book - if an e-book can be a coffee table book!"

Wainwright's own account gives a snapshot of social history on the eve of the Second World War, and Andrew's new digital book offers a commentary on what has changed since 1938, rather than a traditional 'turn right, turn left' guide.

The Wainwright Society member traces some of the people that AW stayed with en route and also incorporates Ordnance Survey map excerpts that would have been familiar to the Blackburn-born fellwalker, who became Kendal borough treasurer.

Andrew's 130,000-word account of his 1998 Pennine trek remains unpublished. He has also been trying for several years to interest TV companies in making a programme about the journey, along similar lines to Julia Bradbury's Wainwright Walks for the BBC. He told the Gazette: "AW had to wait 40-odd years before anyone took much notice of his original walk and I have only been waiting 16 so I mustn’t grumble."

- The Kindle version of In Wainwright's Footsteps: The Pennine Journey is available from Amazon, price £4.79.