Lakeland Larks, Laughter and Lunacies

Linda - 15 Aug, 2024

I took this book on holiday for a light hearted read and thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband heard me chuckling away time and time again. Anna has produced a funny, sometimes slightly irreverent, take on ‘life’ and the people and situations that she has encountered on her travels.

Mike Addison - 07 Aug, 2024

From the review published in North Lakes Living by the News Editor of The Keswick Reminder, Mike Addison.

What a highly entertaining read this is – laugh-out-loud funny and with more amusing anecdotes than you can shake a stick at. The ebullient Anna Nolan has an engaging writing style, and you cannot fail to be enamoured by her wit, and her devil-may-care attitude certainly shines through in this book, which charts her escapades and mishaps on the Lakeland fells. Having cut her climbing teeth in Poland’s Tatra Mountains, Anna subsequently developed a deep love of the Lake District, completing all the Wainwright fells numerous times and leading a walking group for Skiddaw u3a. Anna’s highly humorous anecdotes and witty digressions are richly interspersed with comic verse, and you are virtually guaranteed a giggle on every page.

Olga Livesey - 22 Jul, 2024

Lakeland Larks, Laughter and Lunacies - the book truly lives up to its title. Anna's explorations of the Lake District and humorous poems are very cleverly written and I was totally engrossed after each chapter, as to what would happen next.

I highly recommend reading this book, as you can put it down, have a break and return to reading the book with the same enthusiasm. Can't wait for the sequel to be published.

Clive Elphick - 21 Jul, 2024

This highly entertaining book is far more than an account of how Anna has climbed all of the Lake District peaks ten times. It is indeed partly biographical, but also contains numerous laugh-out-loud comic verses, not only about her hiking mishaps but also about new hips, Boris, Brexit, the NHS, being 70, Keswick, food, publishers, jabs etc. I am looking forward to the sequel which will be in bookshops later this year.

Jane Mallinson - 12 Jul, 2024

What a delight, a lighthearted tramp over Lakeland Fells, getting in and out of trouble in a most disarming way. Written by someone whose mother tongue isn’t English Anna Nolan displays an intimate knowledge of nuance and irony unknown to many native born people and her joy in using the idiosyncrasies of the language is apparent.
Just the sort of book to pick up after a day on the hills and compare the author’s experiences with yours

Celia Watson - 11 Jul, 2024

Lakeland, Larks, Laughter and Lunacies is a very entertaining and inspiring book. It tells the story of the author Anna Nolan's early life in Poland, where her love affair with mountains began, to Keswick in Cumbria where she and her husband Vinnie have made their home. There are fantastic descriptions of her mountain adventures all told with humour and self deprecation. Neither Annie or Vinnie drive and the fact that they have managed to access the entire lake district by use of a bus is truly impressive. Anna illustrates some of her stories with poetry into which she weaves observations of everyday life that had me laughing out loud. The title is very apt and I look forward to the sequel.

Barbara Crinson - 05 Jul, 2024

This is a very amusing and thought-provoking must-read, particularly for anyone who has a love of walking and exploring the Lake District fells. Anna writes with an engaging, individual and perceptive style, guaranteed to imprint a constant smile on your face and leave you chuckling as you turn each page. Lurking within the witty and humorous tales and poems, Anna succeeds in reminding the reader of our collective responsibility to reduce our own carbon-footprint and our obligation to preserve the health and future of planet Earth.

Robert Heinaman - 27 Jun, 2024

In a sprightly style all her own, Anna Nolan takes us through some of the mishaps and occasionally dangerous situations she has experienced during decades of mountaineering in Eastern Europe and England's Lake District. She begins by recounting how, thanks to unexpected political developments in Poland, she and her mother were able to acquire the right to permanent residence in England. Eventually, her love of walking in the Lake District's mountains led her and her husband Vincent to risk giving up secure jobs in London and move to Cumbria. Since then she has been continuously exploring the fells. The misadventures that are the focus of the book are related with wit and energy - and frequently too with the help of humorous poems reflecting on a variety of matters. A book that can be highly recommended, especially to visitors to England's Lake District.