The event that most influenced me, and my interest in walking, took place when I was 11 years old, taking part in my first scout camp at Ullswater. I was overweight and unfit, and struggled to keep up on the climb of Place Fell. The scout leader had to carry my rucksack for me.  It was a humiliating experience, and I was determined to get fit.

My mother had been a keen walker since her youth, and was particularly fond of the Lake District and the Peak District. We went on family holidays staying at HF and CHA walking centres around the UK, and it was a great way to get to know other youngsters. The year I left school I went off with a school friend on a Ramblers Association holiday to the Austrian Tyrol, climbing two peaks over 3000m. At Birmingham University, and there was one particularly memorable walking club trip to Glen Nevis during the Christmas break. Our old green van barely made it over Beattock Summit. It was my first real experience of snow climbing, on the Mamores, and of white-out conditions climbing Aonach Beag.

After Birmingham I had a year wondering what to do, and got several postings as Centre Secretary for the HF at guest houses in the Lake District, Northumberland and Scotland. The main job was organising and leading the walks for the "A", "B" and "C" parties.  Having got to like dashing round as many peaks as I could in the day, I had to learn to slow down. Once again I could enjoy other people's company on a walk. However, I never gained a good head for heights, and left it to my colleague to lead the Aonach Eagach ridge walk.

I met Maggie in Aberdeen and we were married in 1979. I started working in tourism and wrote brochures and walks leaflets. We had some good walks together, and then Catriona and Owen were born and it wasn't quite as easy any more. Neither of them really enjoyed being carried on our backs in the teeth of a gale.  We visited Austria in 1994 and coaxed them up hills with the prospect of sausage and chips in the mountain hut at the top. For some reason they still preferred playing around in the big swimming pools. Catriona did get to like hillwalking, and I remember a trip the two of us made to the Isle of Arran, when we lived in Ayrshire. We camped beside a lochan cradled in a perfectly shaped corrie, and the next day climbed the surrounding mountain tops. Now Catriona is away walking in Japan and China! And we have another addition to the family, Frances, who enjoys walking as long as it's not too far. There are plenty of possibilities in our current home town of Dundee.

More recently I've enjoyed some great walks with colleagues from work, but with less time to spare I've concentrated more on running. I realised I could run up hills as a change from the roads. This brought quite a few hilltops within reach on a pre-breakfast run from a holiday hotel or cottage. Often there was no information on routes available, and I just had to work them out for myself. This was when the idea of writing up some of the walks for other holidaymakers first occurred to me, but the tour operators weren't interested. Then the internet came along and Catriona and I went walking in Japan, and walkingstories.com was the result.

Andrew walking in Norway in June 2004

with the family in Paris, July 2004