BOOK REVIEWS


/ ROLY SMITH


Baillie. As Leo Houlding, his partner on the recent “Young Men of Hoy” climb, writes in his foreword: “They say there are old climbers and bold climbers but no old, bold climbers; save one…. there is but one Sir Chris Bonington.”


CHRIS BONINGTON: MOUNTAINEER Chris Bonington Vertebrate Publishing £20 / paperback


his is a revised, expanded and redesigned version of OWPG President Chris Bonington’s illustrated biography, which was first published by Diadem in 1989. It’s appropriate that Bonington should dedicate it to Ken Wilson (see obituary OF Summer 2016), who inspired and published the first edition and who, according to the author, “contributed so much to mountaineering as its resolute and vocal conscience.”


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ANNANDALE WAY Roger Turnbull and Jacquetta Megarry Rucksack Readers, £12.99 (pb).


It brings us completely up to date with Bonington’s amazingly active life


This new edition is, if anything, even more visually appealing than the first, and yet another fine production from Vertebrate. More importantly, it brings us completely up to date with Bonington’s amazingly active life, including the heart-warming story of his marriage to Loreto, widow of his former climbing partner and good friend Ian McNaught-Davis, last year. It also records Bonington’s 2010


trek to Annapurna Base Camp to mark the 50th anniversary of his epic expedition which resulted in the ascent of its south face, and his extraordinary ascent of the Old Man of Hoy at the age of 80 in 2014 – 48 years after his first ascent with Tom Patey and Rusty


4 Outdoor focus | spring 2017


A74 (M) to the greater heights of the Western Highlands, they are too often overlooked and ignored. But to those who know them, the hills of Dumfries and Galloway have some of the most beautiful and unspoilt landscapes in the Scotland. And the walker can enjoy a rare solitude in them which has been lost on the greater and more popular heights further north.


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The guide lives up to Rucksack’s usual high standards


The Annandale Way is an exciting new 56-mile long distance walking route which follows the course of the River Annan from source to sea. It links Moffat with Annan on the Solway Firth, taking in such scenic highlights as the


he Southern Uplands never really get the credit they deserve. By-passed by most hillgoers blindly speeding north on the


22 IDEAS THAT SAVED THE BRITISH


COUNTRYSIDE Peter Waine & Oliver Hilliam Frances Lincoln, £25 (hb).


his timely compendium of twenty-two essays by a former chairman and the communications officer of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is enlivened by short introductions by some of the country’s leading conservationists, plus some show biz personalities. CPRE president Andrew Motion claims in his foreword that the English countryside is a great collaborative


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Devil’s Beef Tub, where Border reivers once hid their stolen cattle, and the castles at Lochmaben and Haddom and Spedlin’s Tower house. It opened in 2009 after development by the Sulwath Connections Landscape Partnership and local communities with the support of local landowners with the aims of celebrating and protecting the Dumfries and Galloway landscape, and promoting Annandale as a new area for walking. Turnbull and Megarry’s guide, beautifully illustrated by photographer Lynne Kirton, lives up to Rucksack’s usual high standards. The detailed route mapping on rain-proof paper is at the unusual 1:44,000 scale, and does away with the need for any further maps. Expect many more diversions from the A74 (M).


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