Shortlisted: 2016 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain LiteratureShortlisted: 2016 Banff Mountain Book Competition'It's the classic of post-war mountain writing.' – Jim Perrin'Rarely do I encounter a cannot-put-down book, but Simon McCartney's aptly titled The Bond is exceptional in many ways.' – Tom HornbeinSimon McCartney was a cocky young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest route...

WINNER: Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain LiteratureWINNER: Mountain and Wilderness Literature Award, Banff Mountain Book Competition'Man, the only – only – good thing about that climb was that you were tied on to the other end of the rope.'Simon McCartney was a cocky young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meet...

All eight series of the comedy drama series set in a Donegal town in the 1950s and '60s'Christopher Fitz-Simon's writing is a delicious mix of gentle and sharp' The GuardianIreland in the fifties, and the days of mass tourism and indoor plumbing have not yet come to rural Co. Donegal. But in the small, sleepy town of Ballylenon, change is coming, and trouble is brewing.A power struggle is under way for control of t...

As seen on TV!The Ice Pilots follows renegade Arctic airline Buffalo Airways, and pilots who defy the cold and the competition by using WWII era propeller planes likes the DC-3 to haul vital fuel, supplies, and passengers to remote outposts across the world’s last great wilderness. From rookie pilots trying to earn their wings in sometimes hellish conditions to vintage planes that flew over Normandy on D-Day, The Ice Pilots brings its rea...

Charley Boorman is back on his bike exploring the world's second largest country - home to some of the most stunning and challenging terrain known to man.Canada is a country of extremes, and Charley knows all about pushing the limits. He goes dirt biking in New Brunswick, dives through old shipwrecks in Tobermory and rides along Butch Cassidy's old Outlaw Trail. He also meets a fascinating mix of people on his journey. As he heads across Canada, he plays ice hockey with a legend of...

In 2008, Mark Beaumont smashed the world record for cycling around the world, by an astonishing 81 days. His race against the clock took him through the toughest terrain and the most demanding of conditions. In 2009, Mark set out on his second ultra-endurance challenge. And this one would involve some very big mountains.The Man Who Cycled the Americas tells the story of a 15,000 mile expedition that once again broke the barriers of human achievement. To pedal the longest m...

A novice's tale of scaling Everest: "Recommended for all armchair adventurers who have ever wondered what it would be like to climb in the Himalayas."— Geographical MagazineThe last attempt to conquer Everest by the unclimbed northeast ridge had ended in failure and tragedy, with the deaths of two great climbers, Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman. Now, in March 1985, Mal Duff would lead a new expedition. Andrew Grieg and the others knew the risks as well as the...

Most people who survived an almost unsurviveable plane crash would be tempted to sit back, take a good hard look at life and take things a little bit easier. Mike Allsop is not most people. Almost losing his life in a Twin Otter crash off the coast of Hawai'i awakened Mike's zest for life and his thirst for adventure.Mountaineering became Mike's passion and climbing led to him almost getting shot in Russia, narrowly missing a fatal avalanche in Peru, returning a replica of a stolen...

As he teetered on a narrow rock ledge a yak's bellow short of the stratosphere, with a rubber mask strapped to his face, a pair of mittens the size of a sealion's flippers, and a drop of two kilometres below him, it's fair to say Mark Horrell wasn't entirely happy with the situation he found himself in.He was an ordinary hiker who had only read books about mountaineering, and little did he know when he signed up for an organised trek in Nepal with a group of elderly ladies that ten...

The inspiring account of a 2650 mile solo hike from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail.Despite never having hiked before, George Spearing decided to take 'leave of absence' from his job as a firefighter in the New Zealand Fire Service and walk the length of America.This is the story of his five month journey, travelling entirely on foot and off-road through the desert areas and High Sierra Nevada of California and the Cascade ranges of Oregon and Washington. Final...

Joe Simpson has experienced a life filled with adventure but marred by death. He has endured the painful attrition of climbing friends in accidents, calling into question the perilously exhilarating activity to which he has devoted his life. Probability is inexorably closing in. The tragic loss of a close friend forces a momentous decision upon him. It is time to turn his back on the mountains that he has loved. Never more alive than when most at risk, he has come to see a last climb on th...

With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Metis (half-breed) kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. He describes early climbs attempted with nothing to guide him but written trail descriptions and the cajones of youth. He slowly acquires the skills, equipment and partners necessary to tackle more and more difficult climbs, farther and farther afield: t...