travel writing

I don’t often read Sunday Times bestsellers, but this year I read three in quick succession, all by the same author, including one that has struck a chord with so many people over the last five years that it has transcended its niche and broken into the mainstream. The book in question is The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.

I’m happy to say that the next instalment of my diaries, The Everest Politics Show, is now available on Audible, Amazon and Apple Books, and will be available on other outlets such as Spotify very soon.

Himalayan travel writing is peppered with stories of yeti sightings or yeti footprints. But if yetis still exist why hasn’t someone filmed one by now? I may have stumbled upon the answer in a long-forgotten work of Himalayan travel writing.

Yes, that’s right. A sensational headline, I know, but it’s absolutely true. Not only did I climb an 8,000m peak, but over the last few months, I’ve been producing an audiobook about it, The Manaslu Adventure, from our little cottage in the Cotswolds.

Thanks to Vertebrate and their Norwegian translator Bibbi Lee, the meagre pot of mountaineering mirth has become a little merrier with the unearthing of a little known gem of Norwegian literature.

In these difficult times it feels uncaring to post about frivolous things like mountain climbing. While considering this, I realised that I didn’t know much about the mountains of Ukraine. I decided to find out all I could, and remembered something on my bookshelf.

I’m super excited to make two big announcements in today’s post – a rare public appearance and a new book that explores the journey of Sherpas from the porters of early expeditions to the superstar climbers of the present day.

Back in September my editor Alex Roddie was launching his own book The Farthest Shore, about his winter hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in north-west Scotland, at the Highland Bookshop in Fort William. I attended the launch and then read the book.

A quick message to announce something that I know some of you will have been waiting for as eagerly as when you used to wonder what colour socks your gran was knitting you for Christmas. Yes, that’s right, I’ve narrated my first audiobook!

At the end of last year, I mentioned that I would be slowing down the blog to concentrate on other writing projects. In case you’d forgotten I exist or were wondering if I’d boarded the Mars probe for an attempt

Why The Salt Path is one of the great books about long-distance hiking

My latest audiobook: The Everest Politics Show — an eyewitness account of the 2014 Everest tragedy

Why don’t we see yetis anymore? I may have found the answer

First British man to climb Manaslu then narrate an audiobook about it from a converted stable in the Cotswolds

Is Peaks and Bandits the world’s funniest mountaineering book?

A walk through the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine

The story of Sherpa mountaineers from early expeditions to the present day

Review: The Farthest Shore by Alex Roddie – hiking the Cape Wrath Trail

Move over Jim Dale, there’s a new audiobook narrator in town

The Chomolungma Varieties: struggles of an apprentice audiobook narrator