Quality writing about landscape and the outdoors

I am a member of Gritstone Publishing Co-operative, the authors' co-operative specialising in books on the countryside and the outdoors.

OUTDOOR BOOK OF THE YEAR  (Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild awards, October 2018)

Back Roads Through Middle England (Gritstone Publishing)

Andrew Bibby sets out to cycle from the English Channel to the Humber, following the great stone belt of ‘cotswold’ limestone which has left its mark so powerfully on the countryside. This is a journey of discovery into a very special landscape, and the author draws on themes as varied as social history, literature, land usage, agriculture and rural life today to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that shape the land.

This is a wonderful book which celebrates the beauty of this area of England, but which also does very much more. Thoughtful, well-informed, sometimes provocative, Andrew Bibby goes beyond the superficial to reveal a Middle England which is considerably more complex than many might imagine.

You can order Back Roads through Middle England via the Gritstone website.  An ebook edition for Kindle is also available.

Three crime novels with a strong outdoor theme, set in the high Lake District Fells,  The Bad Step, In the Cold of the Night and Too Hot for Comfort are published in paperback format by Gritstone Publishing. In print. Also available in Kindle ebook format.

Walking in Purbeck (Dovecote Press)

This book has been in print for some twenty-five years, a tribute perhaps to the continuing popularity for walkers of the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, on England's south coast. A fourth edition of the book, complete with OS maps, was published by Dovecote Press in 2010. (Click on the image above to access two extracts from the book).

The Backbone of England: Landscape and life on the Pennine watershed

Published March 2008 (hardback). Revised paperback edition published March 2011. Now out of print, except in the ebook edition (Kindle), £3.50.

"In this wonderful book Andrew Bibby... not only helps us to savour the Pennine landscape;  he helps us to understand it, and he urges us to cherish it.  He shows us how this land was formed, what has happened and is happening to it, and – in a thoroughly un-preachy kind of way – why it matters.  This is a book of enjoyment and of revelation." - Chris Smith (Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury)

Extracts from the book available here.

Freedom to Roam Guides

I was the series editor of a collection of books produced to celebrate the arrival in England of the right to roam at will in open country; I was also the author of five of the titles in this series. The books were published by Frances Lincoln Ltd in conjunction with the Ramblers' Association. The books are now out of print.)

• Wharfedale and Nidderdale (the southern Yorkshire Dales)
• Wensleydale and Swaledale (the northern Yorkshire Dales)
• South Pennines and the Bronte Moors
• Forest of Bowland with Pendle Hill and West Pennine Moors
• The Pennine Divide

Archived below is a selection of my journalism on outdoors themes:

• Britain's blanket bogs (private client, 2011)
• Celebrating Britain's national parks (Choice, 2009)
• Campaigning for England's newest national park (Choice, 2009)
• London blind ramblers (Choice, 2008)
• Looking after Britain's landscapes (Choice, 2007)
• Walking the Bronte moors (Country Walking, 2007)
• Kinder Scout 75 years after (TGO magazine, 2007)
• Access walking in the North Pennines (walk magazine, 2006)
• Natural England's Sir Martin Doughty: a new champion for the English countryside? (interview) (walk magazine, 2006)
• Walking in the Forest of Bowland (Country Walking, 2006)
• Making the most of the new 'right to roam' (Choice, 2005)
• The Six Trigs challenge walk
• Enjoying access in the Isle of Purbeck (Walk, 2004)
• These moors are ours (Rambling Today, 1996)
• The ice-axe man cometh (Independent on Sunday, 1995)
• Nidderdale's natural beauty (Independent, 1994)
• Paying respects to Churn Milk Joan (Independent, 1993)
• A walk from Worth Matravers (Independent, 1993)
• Benny Rothman and the campaign for access (Rambler, 1992)

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