Let’s talk about Tubular Fells which is the perfect mixture of London and the Lake District (and a brilliant name by the way)! It seems to have been really successful as I keep seeing it everywhere. How did you come up with the idea and how long did it take to complete?

He said: “Growing up in the Ribble Valley I was blessed with an immediate environment that was very beautiful. I really appreciated it as a kid, but when we started going to the Lakes on many weekend trips I just fell in love with the place.Watching Lakeland travel videos while exercising on the treadmill, I often glance aside at the "Tubular Fells" map on the wall to keep myself oriented. Sometimes I can even do this without falling off. I have always walked in the outdoors for as long as I can remember. I lived in a village as a child and we used to walk a lot in the local area. The greatest memories from childhood are the snowy days when I would go sledging. It would be 1978 and 1982 when I remember walking over 10 foot high snow drifts and I thought it was magic. I always preferred to go out in the snow than in the hot sun. How I hated the summer of 1976! The result is a stylised map, colour-coded in line with Wainwright’s different volumes of his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, with each area depicted in its distinctive hue. In addition to the 214 fells listed by Wainwright, the map includes the sections of the Coast to Coast Walk, the Cumbria Way and the very end of the Dales Way that fall into the area covered. You donate some of the profits to Fix the Fells. How has that been working? What do Fix the Fells do?

I started walking from an early age. My first visit to Lakeland was at eight weeks old, not that I can remember, but my first real Lakeland summit had to be Loughrigg on a trip from primary school at about eight years of age.

We all complain, but to be honest, there’s not much wrong with the place and I think as a nation we should be proud of what our capital can offer when compared to other cities in the world. After a fantastic day on the fells, there’s nothing better than returning to an iconic Lakeland pub like the Kirkstile for a meal, a few pints of local Mellbreak golden ale and the conversation turned to the days exploits. I think that’s what most people long for!

As a child I lived and grew up in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire (Tolkien’s “Shire”), one of the most rural and least densely populated areas of the UK. In matter of fact, I’m not a northerner as the geographical centre of the United Kingdom is just north of Dunsop Bridge a few miles from where I lived. I attended secondary school in the small market town of Clitheroe. I read for my Geography degree in the lovely city of Lancaster and spent one year completing my PGCE training in Liverpool. After these two places, which already seemed large to me, it was logical to move for work to the biggest place in the country beginning with ‘L’. In all honesty I wanted to broaden my horizons and experience. A new planning map for the 21st century - designed to show all of the 214 "Wainwright Fells", with their names, as clearly as possible on a high quality topographical base map. The map will also be on sale at points throughout the Lake District including YHA hostels and the new National Trust shop in Grasmere. It will also be available at Stanfords in Longacre, London. I love to go alone onto the fells, but I also enjoy the camaraderie of walking in a group, usually members of the Online Fellwalking Club (OFC). Once started, it took a few hundred hours work I guess, as the idea developed and evolved into the final map I have now. So I suppose, 10 years thinking about it and a few weeks at the computer!”I came down to London to teach for 5 years and ended up staying. I live in East Ham in the London and Olympic Borough of Newham. After nearly 20 years of teaching I now run my own fledgling business designing, publishing and selling my quirky and urban looking topological maps of the mountains. I also carry out freelance assessments in schools. My series of topological maps started two years ago with Tubular Fells which has been a great success. I also sell a Scottish version called MunrOverground. Other maps are in the pipeline (or should that be tube line) with the release of my Snowdonia version this spring. The latest map is titled Snowmotion! When did you get into hiking? Is it something you’ve done all your life or did you get into it at a later stage?

Do you feel you’ve been able to create a good balance of city life and hiking, or ideally would you want to spend more time in the countryside? How do you travel? When in the week do you go, what time of day? How long does it take, and what’s the usual cost? The Lake District is my favourite location. I think it’s because of my own broad ranging knowledge that endears me to the place so much. It is such a diverse and contrary to belief a massively human landscape. I love how the human interactions with the landscape has woven an amazing fabric of landscape across the fells. From the geological history, which is almost second to none in terms of its variety, to the human history dotted across the area, it’s a really amazing area. As became evident on my own map, the Lake District is roughly the same size as Greater London but within that small area are 17 major valley lakes, iconic properties, mountains greater than 3000′, but with geological characteristics that make them as varied as the Badlands of Dakota to the Alps of Europe. I have travelled quite a lot and from my own knowledge of the planet, I doubt there is as varied an area of ground on earth with as much interest and shear diversity of beauty. It’s not the greatest landscape in terms of scale, but it’s certainly one of the most intimately beautiful.His approach to the fells is purist in nature, though he admits he is not an out-and-out peakbagger. I think it’s a bit of a cheat to just walk from one cairn to the next and say you’ve bagged another mountain. Mountains are massive structures and they have many facets and interesting features that often grace their flanks. This is one reason I started scrambling as I wanted to know the mountains as a whole and not as just a summit top cairn,” he added.