Review: Life on the Mountains by Terry Abraham. Published by Jake Island Limited £19.90

FOR nearly a decade now I have been following the life and career of Terry Abraham – filmmaker extraordinaire.

Terry first came to the attention of the public in 2014 with the release of the first of his trilogy of films entitled “Life of a Mountain” with Life of a Mountain – Scafell Pike. This had taken him nearly three years to complete and was initially helped with a crowdfunding appeal to cover the costs of Terry’s expenditure during this time. This first film was followed with Life of a Mountain – Blencathra in 2017 and Life of a Mountain – Helvellyn in 2020, all of which received rave reviews when shown on the BBC.

Life of a Mountain – Scafell Pike was the start of a journey that has seen Terry brave blizzards, near-death falls, bitter cold and intense loneliness to make this trilogy of films that have been watched by millions and have become the benchmark of Lake District cinematography.

This book, Life on the Mountains is divided into four chapters – Before Scafell Pike, Scafell Pike, Blencathra and Helvellyn. The first chapter is Terry’s autobiography about his early life from his birth in 1977 to 2011 when he first got the idea of the filming of Scafell Pike throughout the twelve months of the year. The next three chapters concentrate on each of the mountains featured in the trilogy. In these Terry talks about a number of people featured in each of the films – Famous Fellrunner Joss Naylor, Mountain Guide David Powell-Thompson and Otley’s Cary Davies who at that time was Hillwalking Officer for the British Mountaineering Council in the Scafell Pike chapter; Comedian Ed Byrne and Journalist/Broadcaster Stuart Maconie in the Blencathra chapter and Meteorologist Peter Gibbs and TV presenter Julia Bradbury in the Helvellyn chapter.

In Life on the Mountains Terry presents more than 100 exclusive photos from this decade on the fells, and speaks candidly about his troubled early life, a disowned father, depression and his love of real ale before revealing the tricks and techniques of his craft and detailing the landscapes he has grown to love.

The book is punctuated throughout by a large number of full colour photos taken by Terry which greatly compliment the accompanying text.

From wild nights out on the fells to meeting Cumbrian legends; from stalking deer in Martindale to documenting Storm Desmond’s fallout; from dawn shoots of golden-hour panoramas to becoming a campaigning voice for Lakeland, Life on the Mountains is the story of one man’s mission to capture the Lake District as never before – and of finding peace in the fells.

For anyone who has seen these magnificent films or for any lovers of the Lake District, this is a must-read story about a man who has dedicated the last decade to portraying three of the most iconic mountain regions in Lakeland and a book that I can highly recommend.

by John Burland