Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn, Lancashire into a family which was relatively poor, mostly due to his stonemason father's alcoholism. He did very well at school (first in nearly every subject) although he left at the age of 13. While most of his classmates were obliged to find employment in the local mills, Wainwright started work as an office boy in Blackburn Borough Engineer's Department. He spent several further years studying at night school, gaining qualifications in accountancy which enabled him to further his career at Blackburn Borough Council. Even when a child Wainwright walked a great deal, up to 20 miles at a time; he also showed a great interest in drawing and cartography, producing his own maps of England and his local area.

In 1930, at the age of 23, Wainwright saved up enough money for a week's walking holiday in the Lake District with his cousin Eric Beardsall. They arrived in Windermere and climbed the nearby hill Orrest Head, where Wainwright saw his first view of the Lakeland fells. This moment marked the start of what he would later describe as his love affair with the Lake District. In 1931 he married his first wife, Ruth Holden, a local mill worker, with whom he had a son Peter. In 1941 Wainwright was able to move closer to the fells when he took a job (and with it a pay cut) at the Borough Treasurer's office in Kendal, Westmorland. He lived and worked in the town for the rest of his life, serving as Borough Treasurer from 1948 until he retired in 1967. His first marriage ended when Ruth walked out three weeks before he retired. They later divorced. In 1970 he married Betty McNally (1922-2008), also a divorcee, who became his walking companion and who eventually carried his ashes to Innominate Tarn at the top of Haystacks.

Wainwright was a life-long Blackburn Rovers fan and indeed a founder member of the Blackburn Rovers Supporters Club.

Wainwright started work on the first page of his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells on 9 November 1952. He planned the precise scope and content of the seven volumes from the start, and worked conscientiously and meticulously on the series for the next 13 years at an average rate of one page per evening.

According to Wainwright in his autobiography Fellwanderer, he initially planned the series for his own interest rather than with any intention of publication. When he did come to publish his first book it was privately through a local printer, as he could not face the prospect of finding a publisher; however, his friend Henry Marshall, Chief Librarian of Kendal and Westmorland, took charge of publicity and administration and his name appears as publisher on the early editions. This arrangement continued for the first editions of the next three books in the series, after which they were taken over by the local newspaper the Westmorland Gazette based in Kendal. Wainwright's books were in turn taken over by Michael Joseph in the 1990s. When they ceased publication in 2003, the rights were bought by Frances Lincoln.

The Pictorial Guides are currently being updated, for the first time since their original publication, to take account of changed conditions on the fells. The revisions are being made by Chris Jesty, who uses an imitation of Wainwright's hand lettering to make the alterations look as unobtrusive as possible. The most notable changes are that the covers of the revised books show photographs of the Lake District by Derry Brabbs, rather than the drawings that were on the covers of the originals, and the maps show the paths in red. As of September 2010 the seven books in the 'Lakeland Fells' series have been issued in the revised edition. It has been announced that the remaining guides are also to be revised, first 'A Coast to Coast Walk', then 'The Outlying Fells of Lakeland' and then 'The Pennine Way Companion'.

Wainwright followed the Pictorial Guides in 1968 with the Pennine Way Companion, applying the same detailed approach to Britain's first long-distance footpath. This was for many years a leading guide to the Pennine Way, rivalling the official guide book by Tom Stephenson. Wainwright's book consists of a continuous strip map of the route with accompanying commentary, with an unusual quirk: because the route goes from south to north (bottom to top on a map), contrary to normal reading order, the map and commentary start at the bottom of the last page and work upwards and backwards towards the front of the book. The guide was prepared with the aid of four helpers (Harry Appleyard, Len Chadwick, Cyril Moore and Lawrence Smith) and its preparation was affected by the major outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in 1966 and 1967, which closed access to many of the moors.

In 1972 Wainwright devised the east-west Coast to Coast Walk, partly as a conscious alternative to the north-south Pennine Way. The Coast to Coast, he declares in his guidebook to the route, which follows the same format as the Pennine Way Companion, "puts the Pennine Way to shame" for scenic beauty, variety and interest. The 190-mile route traverses the north of England from St. Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, passing through the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors national parks.

The Outlying Fells of Lakeland (an idea he had previously rejected), published in 1974, was his last major guidebook. Thereafter he concentrated on sketchbooks of larger-size line drawings until his eyesight began to fail in the mid-1980s. His Ex-Fellwanderer, an autobiographical work published in 1987, was clearly intended to be his last written work, but he continued to lend his name and some written commentary to a series of "coffee table books" featuring the photography of Derry Brabbs.

By the mid-1980s Wainwright was becoming a TV personality; several TV series based on his work were largely devised and presented by the farmer and broadcaster Eric Robson.

A new BBC documentary about Wainwright's life and was broadcast on Sunday 25 February 2007 on BBC Four, prior to a new 4-part series of walks, beginning the following evening.

This first Wainwright Walks BBC series covered Blencathra by Sharp Edge, Castle Crag, Haystacks and Scafell Pike from Seathwaite. The second series, broadcast later in 2007, includes Catbells, Crinkle Crags, Helm Crag, Helvellyn from Patterdale, High Street from Mardale and Pillar. A third series was produced in August 2008, while a 6-part series entitled Wainwright Walks: Coast to Coast was broadcast on BBC Four in April and May 2009 and on BBC2 from 21 July 2009, and presented by Julia Bradbury. A Granada TV series Wainwright Country included Eagle Crag, Great Calva, Knott Rigg, Pike O'Blisco, Stybarrow Dodd, Thornthwaite Crag and Yewbarrow.

DVD release

Wainwright Walks Series One was released on DVD in June 2007 and Series Two was released in early January 2008. A further series Wainwright Walks: Coast to Coast was released on DVD in June 2009.

Wainwright died in 1991 of a heart attack. According to his biographer Hunter Davies he failed to leave anything to his son Peter, the product of his first, unhappy marriage.

Wainwright's Pictorial Guides have been in continuous publication since they were written and have sold more than two million copies. Although a large number of more up-to-date guides are now on the market, his books remain among the most popular available for their depth, detail and unique style. Moreover, his division of the Lake District into seven areas, and his choice of fells to include, have been followed in whole or in part by subsequent writers such as Mark Richards. The Coast to Coast Walk too is one of the most popular long-distance footpaths in the United Kingdom despite its lack of official status, and has spawned various guidebooks by other authors. In 2003 it was voted the second best walk in the world in a survey of experts conducted by Country Walking magazine. The popularity of Wainwright's books of drawings and large-format photographic books has not matched that of the guides, however, and many of these are now out of print.

The 214 fells described in the Pictorial Guides are now generally known as the Wainwrights, and visiting them all is a common form of peak bagging. The Long Distance Walkers Association maintains a register of walkers who have completed the Wainwrights; in November 2007 there were 459 people on the list, of whom 40 had completed more than once. Dave Hewitt estimates that the total number of completers could be over 50% higher than the LDWA's figure. The Ramblers Association reported in 2008 that a boy of six years, four months and 27 days had become the youngest person to complete the Wainwrights. In April 2009 a young boy of just five years old completed the round and becomes the third member of his family to do so after his older sisters held the 'Youngest 214 Completer' previously.

Wainwright was a strong supporter of animal rights and gave most of the profits from his books to animal charities. In 1972 he became chairman of the recently founded Animal Rescue Cumbria, and over the years he donated enough money to the charity to enable the foundation in 1984 of Kapellan, a shelter for stray cats and dogs in Kendal. After his death the society was renamed "Animal Rescue Cumbria — The Wainwright Shelter" in his memory.

The Wainwright Society was inaugurated in 2002, with the aim of keeping alive the things he promoted through his books.

On 27 June 2008 a new landmark road bridge, in his home city of Blackburn, was officially opened and named the Wainwright Bridge in his honour.

This is a list of the principal books by Wainwright published in his lifetime. He also produced several further books of drawings and illustrated works by other authors notably "The Plague Dogs" by Richard Adams in which his maps are fairly essential for following the dogs' progress. Similarly his drawings and a map were included in the book "Scratch & Co." by Molly Lefebure which has recently been republished.

Guidebooks

• A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells

* Book 1: The Eastern Fells (1955)

* Book 2: The Far Eastern Fells (1957)

* Book 3: The Central Fells (1958)

* Book 4: The Southern Fells (1960)

* Book 5: The Northern Fells (1962)

* Book 6: The North Western Fells (1964)

* Book 7: The Western Fells (1966)

• Pennine Way Companion (1968)
• Walks in Limestone Country (1970)
• Walks on the Howgill Fells (1972)
• A Coast to Coast Walk (1973)
• The Outlying Fells of Lakeland (1974)
• Walks from Ratty (1978)
• Old Roads of Eastern Lakeland (1985)

Books of drawings

• A Lakeland Sketchbook (1969)
• A Second Lakeland Sketchbook (1970)
• A Third Lakeland Sketchbook (1971)
• A Fourth Lakeland Sketchbook (1972)
• A Fifth Lakeland Sketchbook (1973)
• Westmorland Heritage (1974)
• Scottish Mountain Drawings (6 vols, 1974—1978)
• A Dales Sketchbook (1976)
• Kendal in the 19th Century (1977)
• A Second Dales Sketchbook (1978)
• A Furness Sketchbook (1978)
• A Second Furness Sketchbook (1979)
• Three Westmorland Rivers (1979)
• A Lune Sketchbook (1980)
• A Ribble Sketchbook (1980)
• An Eden Sketchbook (1980)
• Lakeland Mountain Drawings (5 vols, 1980—1984)
• A Bowland Sketchbook (1981)
• Welsh Mountain Drawings (1981)
• A Wyre Sketchbook (1982)
• A North Wales Sketchbook (1982)
• A South Wales Sketchbook (1983)
• A Peak District Sketchbook (1984)

Autobiographical works

• Fellwanderer: The Story Behind the Guidebooks (1966)
• Ex-Fellwanderer (1987)
• A Pennine Journey: The Story of a Long Walk in 1938 (1987)
• Memoirs of a Fellwanderer (1993)

Colour illustrated books

• Fellwalking with Wainwright (1984), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright on the Pennine Way (1985), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk (1987), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright in Scotland (1988), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright in the Lakeland Mountain Passes (1989), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright in the Limestone Dales (1991), with Ed Gelgard
• Wainwright's Favourite Lakeland Mountains (1991), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland (1992), with Derry Brabbs
• Wainwright's tour in the Lake District (1993), with Ed Gelgard

Other books

• Fellwalking with a Camera (1988)

Other works

• Map of Westmorland (1974)
• Antiquarian Map of Cumbria (1980)