Hiking & Backpacking Books for Xmas

If you're looking for a book about hiking or backpacking as a present for someone or even yourself I've written a few that might be of interest including stories of long walks and guidebooks.

For those who've already enjoyed any of my books please tell others and post comments and reviews on social media and online bookshops. For writers this makes a huge difference. Word of mouth and personal recommendations are invaluable.

 

Recent, Current, & Future Reading; Mostly Outdoor & Nature Topics But Not All

My slowly healing hand following a recent operation is keeping me off the hills so I’ve been doing more reading than usual. I thought I’d mention a few outdoor, nature, and other books that might be of interest. Very short reviews only as typing is also slow and not that easy.

I've just read Hunt For The Shadow Wolf: The Lost History Of Wolves In Britain by Derek Gow and The Hidden Fires: A Cairngorms Journey With Nan Shepherd by Merryn Glover. I can recommend both though be warned the first is grisly and disturbing in places. Derek Gow’s in-depth research is phenomena and fascinating but does paint a rather dismal picture. Merry Glover’s book is a celebration of the Cairngorms, my local mountain range, and beautifully written.

I'm usually reading at least two books at once. Currently it’s four – Harold Raeburn: The Steps Of A Giant by Peter J. Biggar, I Belong Here: A Journey Along The Backbone Of Britain by Anita Sethi, and Divine Might: Goddesses In Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes, and Marple: Twelve New Stories by 12 different writers. I haven’t read much of any of them yet but all are enjoyable so far. The Raeburn is a handsomely produced weighty tome about one of the founding fathers of Scottish mountaineering full of fascinating old photos – all that tweed clothing, all those very long ice axes! Anita Sethi’s is a personal account of walking the Pennine Way as a non-white woman.

The last two books are not outdoor or nature ones of course. I thought I’d include them to show I do read other things! I’ve always been interested in mythology and pantheons of gods (so much more fascinating than monotheism) – somewhere I still have copies of Robert Graves’ 2 volume The Greek Myths I bought in the 1960s. Natalie Haynes tells the same stories with the goddesses at the centre. Haynes pops up as one of the writers in Marple, a book of tales featuring Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. It makes for easy late-night reading when I’m too tired to read anything more serious or demanding.

I have a large pile of ‘waiting to be read’ books. At the top are these 'hope to read soon' ones: Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You edited by Nick Hayes and Jon Moses, Beastly: A New History Of Animals And Us by Keggie Carew, and The Great Divide: Walking The Continental Divide Trail by Tim Voors. I’ll let you know what I think when I’ve read them. They all look good.

Finally, a mention of a book I’ve been dipping into for months, The Cairngorms & North-East Scotland by Iain Young, Anne Butler, and Heather Morning in the Scottish Mountaineering Club’s Hillwalkers’ Guides series. This is a magnificent book packed with information and photos. Everyone interested in the Cairngorms should have a copy.  

Outdoor Books for Xmas!

If you're still looking for an outdoor book as a present for someone or even yourself I've written a few that might be of interest. 

Whether mine or someone else's I recommend buying books from independent bookshops if possible.
These wonderful places support small publishers and local writers and are great for browing and chatting about books. We have a marvellous one in my local town, Grantown-on-Spey called The Bookmark.

If buying online bookshop.org supports independent book shops. I've used bookshop.org and find it very efficient.

Book Launch: republication of Rock Climbs by Richard Frere

 

This Thursday I will be taking part in the launch of a new edition of Rock Climbs by Richard Frere, first published in 1938 when the author was just 16.

The launch will take place at Inverness Library at 5.30. Details here. 

Subtitled A Guide to the Crags in the Neighbourhood of Inverness the book describes the climbs that the author and five friends pioneered in the area in the 1930s. Richard Frere went onto become a well known Highland writer. His book Maxwell's Ghost, about his friendship with naturalist Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water, is still in print.

The book launch is on the anniversary of Richard Frere's death on April 27, 1999. It's open to everyone.

The new edition includes additional material by the editors, Peter and Kenneth Wright, setting the book in context and lookin at climbing in the 1930s and a chapter by the author's daughter, artist Jane Frere, about her father's love of nature and her climbs with him. Jane created the linocut print for the cover.

Proceeds from the publication will help Trees for Life to restore nature in the hills Richard loved and knew so well. 

 

Rock Climbs is a wonderful book about the adventures of six teenagers in the hills and crags. That they achieved so much is astonishing. The book is also far more than a guide to the climbs. The lovely descriptions of nature and the landscape really capture the feeling of the beauty and wildness of the places and the power they held over the author.  

Rock Climbs is published by Ribbon of Wildness at £9.99.

 

If you love books support writers, publishers, and indepedent bookshops.

 

My Sandstone Press books

Publishing is going through a hard time at present. Big rises in paper costs, transport and energy are all having a major negative effect on publishers, retailers, and writers like me. 

If you value books and magazines buying them is of course the way to do so. How you buy makes a difference though. Directly from the publisher is best, both for books and for magazines (subscriptions save you money too). You can subscribe here to The Great Outdoors, the magazine I write for every month.

Next for books is an independent bookshop. These wonderful places support small publishers and local writers and are great for browing and chatting about books. If buying online bookshop.org supports independent book shops. I use bookshop.org and find it very efficient.

Sandstone Press publish four of my recent books. You can buy them here.  

My latest book is a walking guide to the Torridon region, published by Cicerone Press, who also publish my big book on the Scottish Mountains.

 

If you're looking for an outdoor book or DVD for Christmas .....

 

Maybe someone would like one of my books or DVDs. 

 If you're buying online Bookshop.org is a way to do so and support local bookshops.

Favourite Books?

A few weeks ago Robert Davidson of Sandstone Press (publishers of my last four books) took up a challenge to post the cover of a favourite book each day for a week without any comments and challenged me to do the same. I accepted though it took me nine days due to attending the Kendal Mountain Festival where the time just vanished.

Choosing the books was an interesting process. The first three that came into my head were all non-fiction so I decided to stick to that. But a work of fiction kept nagging at me and wouldn't go away so it appeared as the last one. I posted them in the order they came to me and that's how they are here.

I decided on only one book per author. In a longer list there'd be several by Colin Fletcher, Edward Abbey, Hamish Brown, Arthur Ransome and Richard Dawkins. All these books have had a big influence on my life at various times. I love them all.

Current & Recent Reading: Books on bird's names, rewilding Scotland, and snow plus woods, bothies, Edward Abbey, Charles Dickens, and Sherlock Holmes

I'm usually reading several books at once. Recently I started the three above - one sent for review, one I contributed to on Kickstarter, and one a birthday present. All three look excellent.

They're not the only books I'm reading though. I've been slowly working my way through Richard Fortey's The Wood For The Trees. It's divided into seasons and whilst Strathspey is a long way from Fortey's southern England wood I've been reading sections at the appropriate time of year. I'm also reading Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend - I like to have at least one work of fiction in my pile of current reading and this is an old favourite.

Two nights ago in a tent in Glen Feshie I was reading another old favourite - Edward Abbey. This was a mix of fiction and non-fiction (though with Abbey it's sometimes hard to tell which is which) as a collection called The Best of Edward Abbey was the only work by him I could find for my Kindle.

I don't often take print books camping anymore. I like having a selection of options. With the Kindle I can carry a whole library. On my recent GR5 walk I read several very different books starting with Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. I was shocked again at the abrupt and disturbing ending - a real cliffhanger! I wanted to remind myself of the original after seeing an excellent theatrical version at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

Other GR5 books were John Burns' entertaining Bothy Tales; Mathias Rostrom's The Life & Death of Sherlock Holmes, a fascinating and exhaustive account of Holmes in popular culture from Conan Doyle to Sherlock and Elementary; and then, of course, many of the original stories in The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Even though they were familiar I found the Sherlock Holmes stories really good for unwinding in the evening, especially when the weather made staying in my shelter sensible.

Nan Shepherd Biography Launch

Charlotte Peacock signs a copy of Into The Mountain

It's not often that an event in Grantown-on-Spey is so popular that the venue has to be changed at the last minute but that's what happened with the launch event for Charlotte Peacock's biography of Nan Shepherd, Into The Mountain.

Well over a hundred people turned up to listen to Moira Forsyth of Sandstone Press and an author herself interview Charlotte Peacock about how an English woman in Suffolk discovered Nan Shepherd and became so entranced by her that she wanted to write her biography. This was followed by questions on the process of researching and writing the book and on the author's feelings about Nan Shepherd - the last coming across as a mixture of fondness and respect. I felt the author, who described Shepherd as reticent, was somewhat reticent herself at times here. A huge amount of difficult and impressive research has clearly gone into the book.

Following the interview there were questions from the audience - and what questions! There were people there who had met or been taught by Nan Shepherd and had fascinating and revealing stories to tell. Then there was the man who'd bought an old booklet about the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition published in 1907 and discovered Nan Shepherd had written her name in it. Wonderful!

After this really enjoyable and informative evening I now have to finish reading Into The Mountain and write a review. I'm well into the book now and enjoying it greatly. It's well-written and packed with interesting details. I'm going to be rereading The Living Mountain and then reading some of Nan Shepherd's other books for the first time too.

Outdoor Books Review 2015

Reading and walking go together! On the Pacific Crest Trail in 1982

Every year I read many books – though never as many as planned. Some are old favourites, some new. Not all are about the outdoors. Of those that were, here, in no particular order, are ones I enjoyed. Some were in electronic form and read in camps and on trains. Others were real physical books (and some of those went travelling too). I’m happy to recommend all of them. I reviewed some on this blog last year too and I’ve put in links.

 

John Muir: The Scotsman Who Saved America’s Wild Places by Mary Colwell

This is a straightforward biography concentrating on his upbringing and influences rather than his later activist years that are well-covered by others. It’s easy to read and a good introduction to one of the most significant figures in the history of conservation and wild land. Longer review here.

Balancing on Blue: A Dromomaniac Hiking by Keith Foskett

The story of the author’s hike along the Appalachian Trail this book is as much about the entertaining and sometimes downright weird people he shared the trail with or met along the way as it is about the actual environment and landscape, though there is enough about the last to let would-be hikers know what to expect. The physical and mental effort needed to undertake such a long hike comes through too.

All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West by David Gessner

Combining a travel book with a literary study David Gessner journeys across the USA in search of the places, people and landscapes that inspired and influenced two great and influential but very different writers on conservation and the outdoors. The result is an interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking book.

Doubling Back: Ten Paths Trodden In Memory by Linda Cracknell

Beautifully written this book describes ten walks undertaken by the author and the memories they

bring back and the emotional importance and impact they have. The walks vary widely and include an alpine mountaineering adventure, a 200-mile solo backpack in the Scottish Highlands, and a trek with friends in Norway. Longer review here.

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure On The Pacific Crest Trail by Carrot Quinn

Written in a fast emotional style that reads as though the events are happening at that very moment this long distance hiking memoir is a blow by blow account about the physical and emotional experience of undertaking such a journey. The author’s mental state and her relationships with the hikers she travels with dominate the story with the landscape and the trail itself very much in the background.

The Carbon Cycle: Crossing The Great Divide by Kate Rawles

Long-distance road cycling has never appealed to me either as an activity or something to read about. However this book about a trip through the Western USA to Alaska caught my attention from the start as the author undertook the journey in order to talk to people along the way about climate change (hence the pun in the title). The story of the ride is entertaining too but it’s the conversations and the author’s reactions to them that make this book stand out.

The Cairngorms: A Secret History by Patrick Baker

Rather than the landscape or natural history this book is about journeys into the hills in search of human influences – gem mining, aircraft crashes, artistic communes and more. The stories are fascinating, as are the author’s adventures and detective work. Longer review here.

Roads Were Not Built For Cars: How Cyclists Were The First To Push For Good Roads & Became The Pioneers of Motoring by Carlton Reid

Fascinating, exhaustive, polemical and eye-opening this history of modern roads by cycling writer Carlton Reid tells a story that really ought to be far better known, which is that the smooth roads we have today came about due to cyclists not motorists. There’s a huge range of colourful characters involved, much curious detail and a really interesting story.

Nature’s Housekeeper: An Eco-Comedy by Michael Gurnow

This unusual and entertaining book is the story of a man discovering and learning to love nature in the forests of Missouri in the USA. Whilst it is funny and there are many hilarious episodes the book does have a serious and profound message. Longer review here.

Between The Sunset And The Sea: A View Of 16 British Mountains by Simon Ingram

Whilst the heart of this book is the author’s description of his adventures on the mountains he weaves history, geology, art, science and more around his personal journey to produce an entertaining and informative volume. I finished this right at the end of the year – a fuller review will follow.

The Adventure Game: A Cameraman’s Tales From Films At The Edge by Keith Partridge

This is an astonishing book, a series of exciting and often hair-raising adventures all over the world in pursuit of film-making. The author has taken his camera deep into caves in Papua New Guinea and to the summit of Everest and just about everywhere inbetween. His stories are thrilling and entertaining and the book is illustrated with dramatic and beautiful photos.

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

Having seen the film of this book last autumn I reread this account of Bill Bryson’s misadventures on the Appalachian Trail and found it better than I remembered from when I first read it back in 1998. I was also surprised at how many of the events in the film replicate almost exactly those in the book. It is funny and also informative but not an accurate description of long-distance hiking!

The Grahams & The Donalds: Scottish Mountaineering Club Hillwalkers’ Guide edited by Rab Anderson and Tom Prentice.

This is a book to dip into and dream and plan. It’s a wonderful guide to Scotland’s lower hills with beautiful pictures, helpful maps and good descriptions. The SMC now needs to bring its Munros and Corbetts guides up to the same standard!

Finally, I don’t only read outdoor books. For those interested my other reading included some big books – Susanna Clarke’s unusual and entertaining Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, read after watching the TV series, which was one of my TV highlights of the year; Margaret MacMillan’s monumental, intriguing and disturbing The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace For The First World War; and Darwin by Adrian Desmond and James R. Moore, a fascinating and detailed biography of the great scientist that I haven’t yet finished. I’m also rereading A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R.Martin, in part because I can’t remember which events in the TV series are the same as those in the books! I’m only a little way into volume two however. I may not finish before the end of this year.

Book Review: John Muir The Scotsman who saved America's wild places by Mary Colwell

There are many books about John Muir plus of course the extensive writings of the man himself. I’ve read most of them but there’s always something new to discover when a new book comes out. The latest, published last year, is one of the few by a British rather than American writer, which distances the content a little from the Muir and the American psyche approach of some US writers. It’s a straightforward biography, concentrating on Muir’s early life and the experiences that led up to him becoming a campaigner for wild places. As most other biographies concentrate on his later activist years this book is useful and humanises Muir – there is a danger of him being seen as an iconic other-worldly figure speaking from on high - by detailing his upbringing and the people who influenced him. Mary Colwell writes well and the book is easy to read whilst packed with information.

This isn't a critical book and it doesn’t go into much detail let alone analysis of Muir’s beliefs and writings. I think it makes a good companion volume to Michael P. Cohen’s The Pathless Way: John Muir and American Wilderness which does go deeply into Muir’s intellectual approach and how it developed and is, in my opinion, the best book on John Muir.

There are more of my thoughts on John Muir in this post from last year.