Seventy five years ago, Harry Griffin’s first Country Diary first appeared in the Manchester Guardian. Possibly the most famous, and certainly the longest serving diarist, his missives from the English Lake District were to appear every other Monday from January 1951 to July 2004.
The story begins towards the end of 1950 when Guardian editor AP Wadsworth wrote to the largely unknown Kendal based journalist to ask if he would like to take on the Lakeland diary following the death of previous incumbent, George W Muller. His instructions were simple and to the point:
