Tom Chesshyre: Wild Peaks: A Journey on Foot Through England’s First National Park

Friday 22 May 11am, St Peter’s Church DE1 1SN

This event will be filmed and made available as a digital recording after the Festival. Available for purchase here.

A journey through Britain’s first National Park on its 75th anniversary

On a spring day in 1932, 400 disgruntled ramblers embarked on a 'mass trespass' of Kinder Scout, a plateau in the Peak District in northern England. Their aim? To establish a right to roam across the rugged landscape, against the wishes of wealthy landowners.

The hikers were seeking respite from the smoky industrial centres of Manchester and Sheffield – and eventually they got what they wanted. In 1951, the Peak District was established as Britain’s first national park. Home to striking dragon-back ridges of rock, vast expanses of peat, farms and villages, cloughs and caverns, the Peak is much more than the 'howling wilderness' described by Daniel Defoe three centuries ago.

With the 75th anniversary of the park’s creation looming, how has this dramatic landscape fared since? Celebrated travel writer Tom Chesshyre hit the trails on a 363-mile ramble to find out – and to celebrate this symbolic home of hiking.

Wild Peaks follows winding paths, pausing at old inns and mountain huts, and along the way meeting a rich cast of landowners, farmers, historians, mountaineers, publicans, rangers, right-to-roamers, homeless travellers, mountain rescue members, mystics, dreamers and fellow hikers.

Don your cagoule, grab a compass, and join Tom as he explores how the land has changed, and how we have too.

Tom will be in conversation with Andrew Flack, former Vice Chair of Derby Book Festival and Festival Retail Volunteer.

‘In his amiable and relaxed company we climb the fells and skirt the lakes; just as engagingly, we meet a carnival of characters whose personalities and opinions are the real focus of Chesshyre’s tale.’ - The Times

‘He has a journalist’s ability to intersperse descriptions of dazzling scenery with brisk historical facts… this book makes you yearn to go there.’ - Country Life