Last updated 22:41, Saturday, 12 July 2008

MARYPORT author Tim Longville has lifted the prestigious Lakeland Book of the Year Award at the annual literary event.

Sharing the honours at the Langdale Chase Hotel, Ambleside, was photographer Val Corbett, of Helton, near Penrith.

The pair had teamed up as writer and photographer for Gardens of the Lake District, a detailed and colourful history of over 40 superb gardens in Cumbria.

Included are classics in the Western Lakes such as the gardens at Mirehouse, near Keswick, and Scarthwaite in Borrowdale - all seen in glowing colour and the finest detail.

Tim, a freelance journalist, and his wife Celia, came to live in Maryport 20 years ago.

They live in Fleming Place, and have developed their own garden so successfully that in past years it has been opened to the public.

“The response proved rather too much,” said Tim. “Four to five hundred

people would visit the garden in a day. In the end we decided for a quiet life and reluctantly closed it.”

Tim writes regularly for Cumbria Life magazine and the esteemed gardening journal Hortus. He also contributes to many national magazines, including Country Life and English Garden.

It was when Val Corbett - a noted freelance photographer for 20 years - arrived to photograph his garden for a magazine that they met.

The award-winning volume they then produced took just two years to complete.

“A garden book had won the award two years previously and I didn’t think we stood a chance,” said Tim.

“So when we first won our category and then the main award, it was a total surprise.

“I was pretty well stunned."

Runner-up was Scafell, Portrait of a Mountain by Bill Birkett, of Little Langdale.

He is well-known to fell walkers and climbers along the Solway as a writer and photographer of many mountain books.

Highly commended was a book by Holme St Cuthbert History Group, of Mawbray.

More Plain People and Places on the Cumbrian Solway is a worthy successor to a previous book authored by the group which featured in the awards three years ago.

Members meet in Mawbray Village Hall each Thursday.

Spokeswoman Helen Nattrass said: “We knew we had little chance as we were grouped with the wonderful garden book by Tim Longville - with Val Corbett’s pictures.

“But it has been a lovely day out, and we are already planning our next project.”

Loweswater-based author Hunter Davies, who presented prizes, said this year’s gathering was the most successful ever, with a record 61 books entered for the top prize.

“Ten years ago there were just 30,” he added. “When tickets went on sale they were snapped up instantly.”