Julia Bradbury: Leaving her high heels behind again

It is hard to remember what Julia Bradbury looks like without hiking boots and a rucksack. But the Countryfile presenter insists she is as happy in high heels and cocktail dress.

“I love to dress up. People can’t believe I’ve got legs.”

A firm favourite with viewers, she has now become part of the BBC’s fixtures and fittings, especially when she landed the Countryfile gig.

So much so, her hugely successful series, Wainwright Walks, which was only supposed to last for four programmes, went on to win regular weekly audiences of more than a million.

The most recent was Wainwright’s Coast to Coast. Although aired a few years ago, the book to accompany the series is out tomorrow to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the walk.

Julia finds it amusing that she has now become synonymous with Alfred Wainwright whose walks in the Lake District are loved by generations of walkers.

“Never in a million years did I think my life would become so closely intertwined with this man. His walks amaze and inspire me,” says Bradbury. “You really have to admire the quality of his books. He was so fastidious. He’s dedicated his life to the Lake District.

“I really wish I’d met him. By all accounts he was rather curmudgeonly, but everyone seems to have their own opinion.”

Julia’s book on the Coast to Coast walk has been published to tie in with the 40th anniversary of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk.

“It is one of the truly great walking challenges – to walk across the whole of England. The Coast to Coast route was AW’s last great venture and has become his greatest legacy to long distance walkers – a beautifully simple proposition, linking three national parks that lie between the Irish and the North Sea,” she explains.

The book follows Julia as she re-traces Wainwright’s grand traverse. The book collects together all six stages of the walk from the TV series, with Julia’s commentary on her experience of the walk accompanied by stills, evocative landscape photography, and AW’s celebrated line drawings. Julia crosses this changing landscape in sun, wind and rain, learns something of its history and meets the people that make up almost 200 miles of northern England’s most glorious countryside

It was her father Michael who introduced a young Julia to the joys of hill walking

“My dad is an outdoors enthusiast and passionate about walking, I went to school in Sheffield and he would take me out into the Peak District after school and at weekends.

“He also knew about AW ; he has a couple of his books. I was lucky enough to have a parent who had a love of the outdoors, so I suppose I got it from him.”

Julia was born in Ireland but the family returned to Britain, where she attended primary school in Rutland, followed by King Edward VII School in Sheffield, where her father worked for British Steel and her Greek-born mother ran a fashion business. She attended acting classes, and took part as a child in the Crucible Theatre’s stage production of Peter Pan, starring Joanne Whalley and Paula Wilcox.

She left school at 16 after O-levels and worked in advertising before moving into television presenting where her career really took off,

“I did what many career women do, I focused on my career, as I really enjoy my work and find it challenging and stimulating. There was always a project here and then a new project there, and the years slip by,” explains the 42-year-old.

She was in her mid 30s and at the height her success when she was diagnosed with endometriosis.

“I wanted to know what it meant for me and the word that jumped out of the page was infertility,” says Julia.

“I knew that I wanted a family at some stage but I had been so busy working on my career. I am of that generation where we were told we could have it all.”

She underwent laser treatment to remove the unnecessary womb lining which was causing the problem and then when she was 40, much to her delight and astonishment, the discovery she was having a baby with her partner, 51-year-old Irish property developer Gerard Cunningham, was understandably tinged with nervousness. 
But her son, Zephyr, was born fit and healthy in August 2011.

Despite having her longed-for child, not even his arrival was going to slow his workaholic mother down for long.

“I could never be a stay-at- home mum. When he was 12 weeks old I’d take him with me while we were filming and breast feed him in the car parks.

“Motherhood is the most wonderful thing; it is incomparable with anything else and from that point of view I wish I had started earlier, but I was very fulfilled in my work.”

She knows that presenting Countryfile is quite a responsibility.

“It’s a bit of a phenomenon. It seems to reach such a wide age group of people.” Just last month she appeared in a an episode alongside Prince Charles on his Highgrove Farm.

Although she loves her countryside mantle, she is conscious that she doesn’t want to get typecast.

“I try maintain a balance. I am doing a new series for the BBC called Keeping Britain Safe about the emergency services.”

It doesn’t sound like she’ll get the chance to put on those high heels for a little while.

Julia Bradbury’s Wainwright Walks Coast to Coast (France Lincoln Publishers £14.99) is out tomorrow.

The ultimate walking challenge

Julia Bradbury is supporting Oxfam’s Trailtrekker on June 1-2. Trailtrekker challenges teams to trek 100km within 30 hours across the Yorkshire Dales and raise money for the charity’s vital work fighting poverty around the world. “I’m thrilled to be supporting Oxfam’s Trailtrekker.

“It’s such is a great way to explore the rugged beauty of the Yorkshire Dales while doing something incredible for a great cause.

“I’ve always loved being outdoors, exploring new places and taking on a challenge,” said Julia. Trailtrekker is certainly all of these things. Walking for 30 hours and climbing the equivalent of Ben Nevis and Snowdon will be tough.

It will probably be the hardest thing you’ll ever do – but the sense of achievement at the finish line will blow you away.

Not only will you have completed an epic physical challenge, you’ll also be supporting Oxfam’s incredible development work. The Yorkshire Post is also supporting the event. Visit www.oxfam.org.uk/trailtrekker