Book reviews Roly Smith
There’s Always the Hills
Cameron McNeish
Sandstone Press, £19.99 (hb)
H
eard the one about the
Scotsman, the Welshman
and the Englishman? Well
if you haven’t you don’t
know much about the history of The
Great Outdoors (the magazine, that
is).
They – Cameron McNeish, Peter
Evans and Roger Smith – worked
together on the title for several
years after McNeish became editor
in 1990. The strange story of
how that came about is related in
McNeish’s revealing autobiography.
McNeish was a keen rock climber
at the time and editor of Climber,
but was becoming increasingly
uncomfortable with the way the
sport was going. “Climbing walls
were being built all over the country
and many climbers were treating
them like gymnasia,” he writes.
“Others had virtually given up
climbing outside and, along with
the explosion of climbing walls,
inevitably came competition
climbing.”
So after he and Evans had
enjoyed a glorious autumn
afternoon’s climbing on the Etive
Slabs on Beinn Trilleachean in 1989,
Evans, then editor of The Great
8 Outdoor focus | summer 2018
Outdoors and admittedly a better
climber than McNeish, jokingly
suggested that maybe they should
swap jobs.
The rest, as they say, is history.
McNeish became the campaigning
editor of The Great Outdoors in
1990 and transformed it into the
serious hillwalking and backpacking
magazine it is today.
McNeish’s honest and sincere
autobiography is filled with the
names of the people who have
influenced his life – from John Muir
and Henry Thoreau to Chris Brasher
(who gave him the title), Tom Weir
and Bill Murray.
But the interesting personal
narrative of how McNeish graduated
from a promising junior athlete
and later youth hostel warden into
one of Scotland’s most respected
outdoor voices is interrupted by
detailed route descriptions of some
of the long walks he has completed.
These range from expeditions
through the great inselberg
mountains of Torridon and the
‘Rough Bounds’ of Knoydart, to a
proposed Scottish National Trail
from the Borders to Cape Wrath and
treks through the Alps, Jordan and
the Himalayas.
McNeish’s transformation from
magazine editor to TV personality
is thoroughly explored but in the
final analysis, it is his enduring
love of and respect for the Scottish
mountains which shines through
on every page. His final advice,
particularly apposite after an acute
foot arch problem was eventually
diagnosed: “Go and enjoy (the
hills) while you can, before age and
infirmity rob you. Love and respect
them and they will be kind to you,
offering far more than you can
give.”
Walking in Northumberland
Vivienne Crow
Cicerone Press, £12.95 (pb)
N
orthumberland has been
described as England’s
Empty Quarter, but there
can be few other counties
with as much history crammed
into every corner. From its glorious
castle-crowned coast to Hadrian’s
Wall snaking across the neck of
England, the past is close to the
surface wherever you may wander.
Add to that the wild, rugged
landscapes of The Cheviots, the
Simonside Hills and the desolate
north Pennines, Northumberland
surely has something for everyone.
So this thorough and
comprehensive updating and
revision of Alan Hall’s previous
Northumberland title for Cicerone,
first published in 1998, is especially
welcome. And with such a prolific
and knowledgeable guide as
Vivienne Crow, you know you can’t
go far wrong.
The new guide is up to the usual
high standard we expect of her and
of her publishers. Clear, Ordnance
Survey mapping is matched by the
author’s crisp and informative
prose, making this the ideal
companion to