Fans of the late writer Alfred Wainwright want to hear from people who met him. Photo: Wainwright estate

Did you ever come across a familiar-looking taciturn bespectacled fellwalker on your travels?

Aficionados of the late guidebook author Alfred Wainwright are keen to hear from anyone who encountered the writer, no matter how fleetingly.

The Wainwright Society’s new project Encounters with Wainwright has been set up to record memories of the man who not only compiled the celebrated Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells but also devised the Coast to Coast Walk followed by thousands of people every year.

He also travelled regularly to the Scottish Highlands and wrote a guide to the Pennine Way, famously promising a drink at the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm to any reader who completed the 270-mile route.

The society’s secretary Derek Cockell said: “We are appealing to anyone who knew or met Alfred Wainwright to contact the Wainwright Society.

“This could be from his days in Blackburn, or later when he moved to Kendal, perhaps as a work colleague or a neighbour. Or it may have been a chance encounter with Wainwright on the fells of the Lake District, the Pennines or the Scottish mountains.

“The Society already has a number of these stories, but would very much like to receive more in order to build a better picture of the man. We would very much like to hear from anyone who has such a first-hand experience they would be willing to share with us or, perhaps, knows of someone else who met Wainwright.”

Anyone who can help with memories or impressions is asked to contact the society’s magazine editor David Johnson, who is in charge of the project. Mr Johnson can be contacted by email or by post at: the Wainwright Society, PO Box 35, Milnthorpe, Cumbria LA7 7WJ.