ROLY SMITH
FREELANCE WRITER AND EDITOR

33 Park Road
Bakewell
Derbyshire
DE45 1AX

Tel. and Fax: 01629 812034

E-mail: mail@rolysmith.com
Web: www.rolysmith.com

ROLY SMITH, president of the Outdoor Writers’ and Photographers’ Guild, is a freelance writer, editor and consultant and the author of over 60 books on walking and the countryside. He was recently dubbed “Mr. Peak District” by his local newspaper.

Based in Bakewell in the heart of the Peak, Roly was formerly Head of Information Services to the Peak District National Park – Britain’s busiest – before taking voluntary early retirement in 1997 to concentrate on his freelance career. Previous to that, he enjoyed a 20-year award-winning career in daily paper journalism, latterly on the Birmingham Post & Mail. He was chairman of the OWPG from 1990 to 2002 and was made an honorary life member in 2005.

He is now commissioning editor for Frances Lincoln Publishing, for whom he commissions, supervises and edits books, in addition to writing several himself.

Some of Roly's most recent books

Click on images to enlarge

Kinder Scout

Peak Villages

Peakland Christmas
Latest publications

Among his latest publications have been two new Freedom to Roam Guides covering the Peak District and published by Frances Lincoln; Murder & Mystery in the Peak; Kinder Scout - Portrait of a Mountain, which Roly edited and conceived and which won the Alan Ball Award from the Libraries Association in 2003, and the best-selling Ramblers’ Guide to the Peak District for HarperCollins.

He was the series editor of the official guides to the National Parks of England and Wales for David & Charles (writing the Peak District volume himself).

Roly has also been a major contributor to a number of publications produced by the AA, Reader’s Digest, Lonely Planet and Dorling Kindersley, and he regularly writes for a number of periodicals, including The Guardian, The Observer, TGO, Walk, Country Walking and other outdoor magazines.

Roly acts as a PR and media consultant for a range of clients, from the International Tree Foundation to the local branch of CPRE. He also edits Peakland Guardian magazine for Friends of the Peak District. Roly chaired the organising committee of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass in 2002, and is currently planning the 75th celebrations in April 2007.

He was president of the South Yorkshire and N.E.Derbyshire area of the Ramblers’ Association from 2000/2003, and is now a vice-president.

His specialities are National Parks, particularly those in Britain, the USA and Canada, access and access history, and walking and the countryside generally.