Book reviews Roly Smith
run in the unlikely surroundings
of central Leeds. They contacted
Claire Carter, who was then
working at Vertebrate, and
between them convinced boss Jon
Barton of the need for the book.
Aided by a Kickstarter campaign
and sponsorship from Alpkit,
Waymaking is the handsome result.
Royalties from sales of the book
will be split between Rape Crisis and
the John Muir Trust.
Waymaking: An anthology of
women’s adventure writing,
poetry and art
Edited by Helen Mort, Claire Carter,
Heather Dawe and Camilla Barnard
Vertebrate Publishing, £17.99 (pb)
T
his long-awaited anthology
of women’s adventure
writing and art is a stylish
compendium, which goes
some way towards addressing what
appears to be a serious gender
imbalance in modern outdoor
literature.
Not since Gwen Moffat’s Space
Below my Feet and Nan Shepherd’s
The Living Mountain has there been
a truly inspirational female voice
for the wilderness – the possible
exception being Alison Hargreaves,
who was sadly lost on K2 in 1995
With contributors including
Alpinist editor Katie Ives; award-
winning author Bernadette
McDonald, and renowned film-
maker Jan Randall, this is an
important and seminal book which
you can dip into at any point and be
instantly inspired by this collective
of writers, poets and artists.
I particularly liked Bernadette
McDonald’s essay Snow, which
recounts a cross-country skiing
expedition with her amazing
80-year-old father and the
poignancy of his later passing, and
Tami Knight’s hilarious cartoon and
account of Ken the Cross-dresser on
Everest.
Apparantly, the idea for the
book came about as a result of a
conversation between Melissa
Harrison and Helen Mort out for a
6 Outdoor focus | winter 2018
touring. But they also head out
into the Atlantic for some island
hopping, including a circuit of the
wild and beautiful Achill Island
in Donegal; Inishbofin and Clare
Island in Connacht, and Inishmore
and Inisheer, in the harsh limestone
karst scenery of the Aran Islands
moored off Galway.
Other highlights would have
to include the Kerry and Dingle
Peninsulas in the south west of the
country, accurately described by the
author as “quintessential coastal
Ireland.”
“This is the Ireland of film and
fable – if you have seen the Emerald
Isle on the big screen, a calendar or
in a coffee table book, the chances
are you will recognise some of the
scenery on Route 5 (the Dingle and
Kerry Peninsulas).”
Unfortunately, you can’t take
your bike to what is described as the
pride of place on this route – the
boat trip from Portmagee to the
6th century monastery of Skellig
Michael, perched on a vertiginous
rock nine miles out in the wild
Atlantic.
Cycling the Wild Atlantic Way
and Western Ireland
Tom Cooper
Cicerone Press, £14.95 (pb)
L
aunched in 2014, the
romantically-named Wild
Atlantic Way runs for
1,500 miles along Ireland’s
breathtakingly-beautiful western
seaboard, between Londonderry
and Cork. The author fell in love
with Irish backroads several years
ago on a six-week ride from Belfast
to County Cork – and he’s been
coming back ever since.
Although it was primarily
designed as a driving route, the
author saw in the Wild Atlantic
Way (WAW) a golden opportunity
for a seven-week, long-distance
cycle route, and this beautifully-
produced Cicerone guide is the
result.
The route is split into six self-
contained stages, each taking in
a section of the wildly-indented
western Irish coastline which could
each be fitted into a week or two’s
Wonders of the Peak: Then and
Now
Roly Smith
Byway Publications, £7.99 (pb)
A
s a life-long Peak
enthusiast and former
fringe resident (Glossop in
its milltown days) I have
two confessions to make.
One: I easily ticked-off the