mountains
An aquatic scramble on the north face of Aonach Dubh
Ossian’s Cave I’m on holiday at the moment in Glencoe, staying at the Clachaig. As always, returning is a strange experience; it’s been over a year since my last visit, and for various reasons it no longer feels like home (although it will always be a second
“Breaching the Fortress” by Harold Raeburn: a companion article to OGJ
This is a fictional article I wrote some years ago as backstory for The Only Genuine Jones. It features a snapshot of the extended universe I have created for the story: a second attempt at the “Great Wall” of Ben Nevis (the Orion Direct route, in reality not climbed until
A few more illustrations
Today I’ve been busy doing some more original drawings for the paperback edition of The Only Genuine Jones. It’s a time-consuming job but luckily it’s something I love doing. Although my drawing skills can’t match those of Whymper, I have tried to emulate his style. Whymper’
New Crowley/Jones story in progress
Wasdale Head: birthplace of English climbing. The Only Genuine Jones is, in part, the story of a climbing rivalry between two prodigious talents of the mid 1890s: Aleister Crowley and O.G. Jones. For my story I took the facts of the case (presented by numerous biographies and works of
The Central Gully of Bidean nam Bian
The northern cliffs of Bidean nam Bian This article was first published on Glencoe Mountaineer on the 1st of March, 2011. It details the culmination of my experiments in Victorian mountaineering equipment in a Scottish winter climbing context. Bidean nam Bian is the most local mountain to the Clachaig, and
Contrast
21st of October 2008: the excitement of new snow The beauty of living far away from the mountains is simply this: contrast. In my everyday life I travel to work in Skegness on the bus, sign in with a fingerprint scanner, talk to customers about smartphones, ask them to sign
North Wall by Roger Hubank: book review
North Wall by Roger Hubank My rating: 4 of 5 stars Roger Hubank is a writer I have encountered before. Hazard’s Way was, I felt, a flawed gem with moments of brilliance but a curiously detached main character and a plot that lacked coherence. For this reason, I started
Some ambience and atmosphere to get you in the mood for the book launch
The north face of the Eiger, glimpsed through stormclouds from Grindelwald, September 2010 Followers of my Facebook page have privy to a fair bit of content that never made it to the main blog, notably a gallery of photos that showcase the main settings for The Only Genuine Jones. However,
Keeping the enthusiasm burning: seven years in retrospect
Autumn colours and cloud in Mickleden, 12th of October, 2005 Seven years ago, my life was very different. I was nineteen years old, and had just conducted a ‘gap year’ spent entirely within the United Kingdom, in which I worked at a garden centre, wrote prolifically, and went on several
The stories will never come to an end: a celebration of humanity in the mountains
The upper cliff of Stob Coire nan Lochan. Without human context, to a human observer it is meaningless. As I read through The Only Genuine Jones for the final time and make my peace with the text before it goes live on the Kindle store, I have learned something from