There Is No Map in Hell: The Record-Breaking Run Across the Lake District Fells

By: Steve Birkinshaw

Narrated by: Stewart Crank

Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1986, the legendary fell runner Joss Naylor completed a continuous circuit of all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District, covering a staggering distance of over 300 miles - plus many thousands of metres of ascent - in only seven days and one hour.

Those in the know thought that this record would never be beaten. It is the ultimate British ultramarathon. The person taking on this superhuman challenge would have to be willing to push harder and suffer more than ever before. There Is No Map in Hell tells the story of a man willing to do just that.

In 2014, Steve Birkinshaw made an attempt at setting a new record. With a background of nearly 40 years of running elite orienteering races and extreme-distance fell running over the toughest terrain, if he couldn’t do it, surely no one could. But the Wainwrights challenge is in a different league: Aspirants need to complete two marathons and over 5,000 metres of ascent every day for a week.

With a foreword by Joss Naylor, There Is No Map in Hell recounts Birkinshaw’s preparation, training, and mile-by-mile experience of the extraordinary, and sometimes, hellish demands he made of his mind and body, and the physiological aftermath of such a feat. His deep love of the fells, phenomenal strength, and tenacity are awe inspiring and testimony to athletes and onlookers alike that "in order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd".

©2017 Steve Birkinshaw (P)2019 Vertebrate Publishing

Awful narration spoils a great story

Such a shame, a really great story but it's beyond me how they matched the narrator to this story. I don't want to denigrate the narrator but he would be much better suited to Shakespeare or an English language tutorial. Nobody should have tried to do an impression of the great Joss Naylor like the butchered intro attempts. The narration was really forced with each word punched out like individual entities and little flow. Why was Steve not reading this?? I've heard him in interviews and he can speak very clearly indeed, plus he'd pronounce the names of the various mountains and regions perfectly. C'mon Audible, get your act together and either get the author to read these running books or else get someone who sounds like him at least with a local (ish) accent?
I got through the first few chapters before I succumbed to the inevitable and returned the book. I'm off to the library to get it in print and I'll listen to the preview a little harder when using this credit again.


For another great book similarly ruined, try Johnny Muir's "The Mountains are calling"

amazing

really enjoyed this account of an amazing adventure and achievement.

it's a shame the narrator was poor with strange accents and awful pronunciation of local areas and mountain names

Great read

There is No Map in Hell is a phenomenal book. Steve is a truly inspiring man; the way he writes is honest and engaging in detailing not only his incredible journey, but the sacrifices he made to push his mind and body to achieve such a remarkable record. The narration was excellent and I found myself drawn in from the very first chapter ... easily one of the best stories I have heard this year!

Interesting story. Poor narration.

An interesting story which could’ve been improved by a decent editor. There are more adjectives in the world than great, good and nice.

Narration really didn’t work for me- full of pronunciation errors and read in a patronising style suitable for small children. On top of that, the accents were distracting and the attempts at female voices bordering on offensive.

Good book spoilt

The books great but the narrator and his stupid attempts at accents are very annoying

Half decent.

Didn't love it but that's beside the point.... had to write this review just to mention how ridiculous/hilarious the reader's Cumbrian accents are, especially Joss Naylor's. And the way he pronounces Latrigg and Wasdale, fantastic stuff.

Great story shame about the narration

Simple and fascinating story. However, narration sounds almost robotic with an imitation accent that doesnt quite work. Just read the book in your normal voice, theres no need to imitate accents its not a novel.

Awful Narration

What should be an inspiring story is rendered unlistenable by utterly robotic narration. Such a shame

wow

just wow to power of a determined strong body and mind. A must for anyone who loves the hill and fells.

Interesting book but dreadful reading

I enjoyed this book, as I've done a bit of fell running myself, but unfortunately the reading is terrible. It's robotic, with every single consonant painfully sounded out, and many well-known Lake District mountain names mispronounced, which is very distracting. I persisted to the end, but only because I really did want to hear it.