Report on the 14th International Festival of Mountaineering Literature
by Kevin Borman from High.
After writing
many novels and feeling dry of ideas, Rosie Thomas heard herself saying
to her agent: "I want to go to Everest." She bravely admitted
this to 300 mountain folk at Bretton Hall on 18th November. The experience
kick-started her muse and made her explore mountaineering further.
As for the resultant novel White, she talked about it exploring motivation
and morality: "It's about one man's selfishness….or focus."
Tony Smythe, who has been heavily involved in the new omnibus edition
of his father's work Frank Smythe: The Six Alpine and Himalayan Books
from Ken Wilson's Baton Wicks imprint, gave an intriguing insight
into the life of a seminal mountaineer, a man who, from 1927, became
the first person, certainly the first Briton, to make a full-time
living from writing about and photographing mountains. Among his
evocative slides illustrating Frank Smythe's life were a number never
previously seen in public.
Graham Hoyland conducted a conversation with Peter and Leni Gillman
whose The Wildest Dream: Mallory, His Life and Conflicting Passions
won the Boardman Tasker Award for 2000. How do two authors write
such a book together, he pondered? Their answers not only revealed
the quality of their research and writing skills, but also clearly
showed how involved they had become in focussing on the 'inner life'
of Mallory who, said Peter Gillman, was
"emotionally very literate".
Steve Bell explained how he commissioned accounts from mountaineers
from ten different countries, each giving their own take on aspects
of the Seven Summits. Was I alone in sensing something dispassionate,
almost callous, about his reference to the body of Hannelore Schmatz
high on Everest, of whom he said: "She is a commonly seen feature
on the mountain"?
Sid Marty is a Canadian mountain man whose bear-like appearance belies
his sensitivity with guitar, song and poetry. Unplugged and, so he
claimed, jet-lagged, he treated the audience to a sample of his Sky
Humour. Kym Martindale's poems, including some from her collection
Jujubes and Aspirins, explored not just climbing, but how the writer
is in the landscape, mediating and distilling the experience of being
there.
David Simmonite's superb images from Rock Climbing in England and
Wales were granted no favours by the Great Grey Screen of Bretton
Hall. His delivery of a selection of the essays he commissioned from
regional activists displayed nerves but indicated the range, in terms
of both writing and geography, which the book contains.
Kathleen Jamie delivered a measured adjudication on the Boardman
Tasker Award for 2000. Both this and the way she tackled questions
from the audience were thoughtful, humorous and accomplished.
Al Alvarez had chosen to speak about Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The
Worst Journey in the World, published in 1922. Among adventure books
this, said Al, "..is the one by which all the others should
be measured."
He went on to suggest that going south for Cherry-Garrard, or climbing
for anyone, is not just "because it's there, but because you're
here". On public schools, Alvarez was of the opinion that if
you could do four years at Winchester, Antarctica would be no problem.
After a break for tea and the opening of John Coulton's exhibition
of splendid chalk drawings The Mountain Seen, Sid Marty returned
with a few self-deprecating tales from Switchbacks, a winner of the
award for Mountain Literature at the Banff Mountain Book Festival.
Then, topping the bill, came Chic Scott with a tour de force, illustrating
and talking in astonishing detail about the British contribution
to Canadian mountaineering. The knowledge and research, and the photographic
memory which lay behind the fascinating tale he told, indicated the
quality of his monumental Pushing The Limits: The Story of Canadian
Mountaineering.
The crowd left sated and buzzing from the day. A rumour suggests
that next year the venue may be different. What is certain though,
is that Festival Director Terry Gifford will come up with another
entertaining mix of the known and the unknown as he continues to
mine the rich seam of international mountaineering literature.
Kevin Borman