author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Andrew Lock was the first Australian to climb all fourteen 8000m peaks. I agree with Sir Chris Bonington: his book is honest, gritty and riveting. It’s also refreshing and humorous in places, and well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy.
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Any search for books about the Apennines which aren’t travel guides, leads inexorably to one book: Eric Newby’s ‘Love and War in the Apennines’. It’s a book I can relate to in two very important respects.
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In 1950 a French team led by Maurice Herzog made the first ever ascent of an 8000m peak when they climbed 8091m Annapurna, during one of the first mountaineering expeditions to Nepal. It’s possible to view their ascent in one of two ways.
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The story of my ten-year journey from hill walker to Everest climber is out now in paperback. But why should you give a toss? Here are five reasons to buy the paperback.
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A quick note to let you know that those of you who pre-ordered my book from Amazon should receive it on your Kindle on Monday (9th). If you’ve bought it on Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Smashwords, then you should receive it the following Monday, 16th.
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I’m on track to publish my book ahead of schedule. If you pre-ordered it then it should appear on your e-reader early in November. If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, here’s the complete prologue to whet your appetite and tempt you to buy the whole thing.
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K2’s history has been covered in depth in a number of well-known books, so why another one? The reason I wanted to read this one was because I very much enjoyed reading Mick Conefrey’s other mountaineering history about the 1953 Everest expedition.
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I now have a cover for my book, and as some of you have played an important part in shaping the design, in the course of unveiling it I thought it would be interesting to share some of the journey which led to the final version.
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Not only do nearly all mountaineering book covers look the same, but they limit their audience with designs which are far too serious, and off-putting to readers not into mountaineering who might otherwise enjoy the book.
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I recently wrote about Colonel Jimmy Roberts, the grandfather of trekking. Now I would like to introduce another important figure in the development of tourism in Nepal, a ballet dancer called Boris, whose colourful life reads like a surreal fairy tale.
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