Report on the 13th Festival
by Sue Harper
Bretton Hall College Was packed for the packed, for the 13th annual Festival of Mountaineering Literature, with scarcely an empty seat in the house.This year's gathering of the climbing worlds literati was very much an international event with guest speakers from various countries including France, Switzerland and the U.S.A
The event was superbly organised by Terry Gifford who had put together a list of high profile speakers, who between them managed to be controversial, humorous, serious and poetic. There was more than enough, in fact, to keep the audience willingly glued to their seats from 10.30 in the morning until 7.30 at night with only two breaks for lunch and tea.
"How Much Risk?" was the ,theme of this year's Festival and ,the first item on the agenda certainly addressed this subject, as well as being somewhat controversial. David Rose and Ed Douglas read extracts from their book Regions of the Heart: The Triumph and Tragedy of Alison Hargreaves. We all know Alison Hargreaves died climbing K2 and was a mother of two young children, but what became obvious from the readings, was that she was also a victim of domestic violence. She saw success on K2 as a way out of this. Success meant money, which meant being able to support herself and her two children as a single mother. She took a risk. It did not pay off and her two children now have no mother. A risk too far for her and her family.
Tom Price, was well qualified to talk about John Cunningham,the subject of Jeff Connor's Creagh Dhu Climber, having shared a tent with him in the Antarctic, and he was very amusing in his reminiscences of the Creagh Dhu. Tom also made the very succinct remark, that the problem with climbing biographies and autobiographies, is that they are so full of climbs - all much of a muchness, unless someone falls off.
Terry Gifford conducted a Parkinson style interview with Jim Curran about Jim's recently published biography of Chris Bonington. At lunchtime Grant Jarvis's bookshop was crowded with willing purchasers and Paul Pritchard was working overtime signing his Boardman-Tasker prize winning book "The Totem Pole." That paul is a walking miracle, was brought home very clearly to the audience as he read out an account of his horrific accident and subsequent rehabilitation, and we heard how for a long time he was confined to a wheelchair, not sure if he would ever walk again. He left the stage carrying his stick in his hand. But he didn't actually use it.
Kevin Borman and Stuart Campbell both read a number of poems from their respective collections, which were wonderfully evocative, but possibly two poets in a row was slightly bad planning as I saw more than one member of the audience with their heads nodding slightly. However they were soon woken up by Dave Gregory who gave an amusing and critical discourse on the various books which had been entered for the Boardman-Tasker competition. One of the books which didn't make the shortlist was written by the next speaker, Anne Sauvy from France, who had much to say on the subject - none of it good. Anne has written three volumes of short stories which have been translated into English. She has won prizes for them in France and Canada, but none of them have won anything in Britain and she cannot understand why. She was not amused and won't be entering again. There was also a dialogue between two climbers and a yeti in a tent, the opening of an art exhibition, and a book launch. And as if this wasn't enough, the grand finale was a film presentation by the two Americans Charles Houston (85) and Bob Bates (88). These two are a real living link with the past. They had climbed with Tilman, Shipton and Odell and here they were sharing these experiences and stories with us. They certainly deserved the standing ovation they received. A memorable end to a memorable day, in which everyone there - guest speakers and audience alike - had something in common, whether it be a love of climbing, a love of mountains or a love of books.
Sue Harper
Extracted from Climber magazine, Jan 2000.