mountain literature

I can confidently say that Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris is my favourite of all the Boardman Tasker Prize winners that I’ve read. It reminded me of Dervla Murphy, but how similar is it? I read Dervla Murphy’s book Full Tilt to find out.

I am giving away a signed copy of my book The Baruntse Adventure to three lucky people who are willing to help me out by posting a review.

Exciting news! I’m delighted to say that my book Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest is now available as an audiobook. I’ve been enormously privileged to work with a highly experienced, professional stage and screen actor as my narrator, and I would like to introduce you to him in this post.

It’s not clear why Kangchenjunga should be considered the last great mountain, but whatever: this book is a comprehensive history of all expeditions up to its first ascent in 1955. I learned a lot from it, and I can thoroughly recommend it, however well acquainted you are with Kangchenjunga’s history.

Publishing is one of the industries that could adapt to a new world that might emerge in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But traditional publishers and indie authors share a common threat that promises an uncertain future.

A quick book update. I’m in the process of publishing revised editions of the Footsteps on the Mountain Travel Diaries. The revised digital edition of The Baruntse Adventure is available now at a bargain price from the main online bookstores.

Last week I teamed up with fellow mountain writer and Amazon bestseller John D Burns to bring you a gripping excerpt from my first book. This week, not only has John recorded an excerpt from my second book, but we’ve also done a short interview about it.

Well folks, I have something rather special this week to help stimulate the senses while you are in coronavirus lockdown. Fellow mountain writer John D Burns has featured an audio excerpt from Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest on his weekly podcast, and it’s great — a dramatic reading of the crux section where I tackle the infamous Second Step.

As coronavirus lockdown takes hold, the nature writer Robert Macfarlane has started running a reading group on Twitter about Nan Shepherd’s classic nature book The Living Mountain. It was a no-brainer for me to join, and it’s helping me to see the world differently.

There aren’t many characters in Joe Simpson’s book Touching the Void, and the main one spends most of the story entirely alone, contemplating existence as he crawls for three days along a glacier. How on earth were they going to make a stage version of this?

Is Kate Harris the new Dervla Murphy?

Win a signed copy of The Baruntse Adventure

My very first audiobook — Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, narrated by Philip Battley

Is The Last Great Mountain by Mick Conefrey the last great book about Kangchenjunga?

What a box of mountaineering books tells me about our post-coronavirus future

Revised edition of The Baruntse Adventure available from all good e-bookstores

An interview and audio excerpt from Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo

An audio excerpt from my book Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest

What I’m learning from Robert Macfarlane’s reading group about Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain

Review: Touching the Void, on stage in London’s West End