John Bainbridge has campaigned for the countryside and right to roam for over fifty years.
In that time he’s worked as a volunteer for the Ramblers Association, spent nine years as the chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association – leading the successful campaign which saved Shaugh Moor and the Blackabrook Valley from mineral working. John spent nearly a decade as a council member of the Council for National Parks and was a founder member of the Two Moors Way Association. He created the Teignmouth and Dawlish Way in Devon.
John was included as one of the twenty most influential right to roam campaigners in Roly Smith’s recent book “Walking Class Heroes”.
Apart from campaigning, John has worked as an outdoors journalist since the 1970s, and is now the author of several thrillers including “Balmoral Kill”, which is mostly set in the Highlands, “Dangerous Game”, set on Dartmoor, and the William Quest novels.
As an inveterate free roamer, John is the author of “The Compleat Trespasser” and the walking autobiography “Wayfarer’s Dole”.
John is currently campaigning alongside the wild campers of Dartmoor to defeat plans by the Dartmoor National Park Authority to restrict the legal right to wild camp on the Moor.
He lives in Cumbria, spending most of his spare time hillwalking in the Lakes, Pennines and Scotland.
WALK MAGAZINE SAID OF JOHN BAINBRIDGE’s BOOK OF TRESPASS – “On a vagabonding tour through Britain’s most delightful countryside and forbidden tracts, Bainbridge charts the history of access and assesses the present state of the law. Villainous landowners feature; so do the likes of GHB Ward and CEM Joad, calling at rallies for access to mountain and moor. Gamekeepers, spring-guns and mass trespasses also get a look-in. Redolent of country air, with nature and archaeology dealt with in graphic style, the book evokes the age of campaigns before words like ‘stakeholder’ and ‘partnership’ were hatched out. The author lends his support to the England Coast Path campaign and calls for the Scottish access model to be extended throughout Britain. It’s thought-provoking stuff and well worth a read.”
“Sean Miller – a rogue of the first water; a former Army sniper, he seems unable to stay out of a fight.” Sean Miller’s fighting a guerrilla war in Spain when he’s called back to Britain. His task? To seek out an assassin as dangerous as himself. A sniper whose deadly aim could plunge the world into war. As the shadow of the Nazis falls across Europe, a sinister conspiracy plots a secret war closer to home. Miller’s pursuit leads from the menacing alleys of London’s East End to the lonely mountains of Scotland. A duel to the death where there can be only one victor in the Balmoral Kill. A fast-paced action thriller by the author of Dangerous Game and the William Quest adventures”
John Bainbridge can be contacted at stravaigerjohn@gmail.com
John’s Walking and Campaigning Blog:
www.walktheoldways.wordpress.com
John’s Writing Blog:
www.johnbainbridgewriter.wordpress.com
John is on Twitter at:
@stravaigerJB
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