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YESTERDAY AND TODAY BY W. R. MITCHELL MBE
With the Dales highlighted so much by the recent television series ‘The Dales’, this book reflects on the real Dales by author Bill Mitchell who has been so much a part of the area as a past editor of The Dalesman magazine and prolific writer of books and articles for some 60 years or more.
The theme of this book – old and new life in the Dales – seeks to record the best of both times. Malham Moor, which lies over 1,000-ft above sea level, has farmed land running up to 2,100-ft. An old-time farmer commented; “We’re having some rum showers. Clashy bad weather for the stock. We’re near the clouds and get all the winds that blow. There’s not a right lot of bield [shelter] up here.”
Full of colour and black and white photographs depicting the characters of the Dales from yesterday and today as recorded by the author. From farming, dry-stone walling, knitting in Dent, shearing of sheep, and general life in the Dales this book captures the heart of this wonderful region.
Paperback book, 40 pages
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A light-hearted review of his 50 years’ association with The Dalesman magazine, the oldest and most popular of Yorkshire magazines. Bill’s many years of writing about the Dales, which included articles each month following handing over editorship in 1988, gave him a wealth of stories and information of his travels throughout the region meeting Dalesfolk in every corner of this special part of Yorkshire.
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W.R. Mitchell
W.R. ‘Bill’ Mitchell joined the Dalesman magazine in 1949, starting a journalistic career inspired by owner Harry Scott’s adage ‘put people before things.’ He took over as editor from Scott in 1968, a position he held for eighteen years. As well as editing Dalesman and its sister publication Cumbria, Bill had a prodigious output extending across over two hundred books, innumerable articles and countless lectures. His thirst for knowledge and a keen listening ear made him an expert on many topics. He had the skill of putting often-reticent Dales folk at their ease, his interviews reflecting a bygone age and remaining for posterity in the W.R. Mitchell Archive.
In 1996 Bill was awarded the MBE for his services to journalism in Yorkshire and Cumbria and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the university of Bradford. In 2007 he was awarded a Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers’ and Photographers’ Guild which cited him as one of the founding fathers of outdoor writing. Two years later he was voted ‘Greatest Living Icon’ for the Yorkshire Dales National Park in a poll to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Parks.
In 2010 he won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dalesman Rural Award ceremony, receiving the award from another advocate of the countryside, John Craven. Bill’s work for Dalesman over four decades is arguably the defining feature of an illustrious career.
Bill died in 2015, aged 87.
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