Mirrors in the Cliffs

by Jim Perrin

This entertaining anthology joins the highly popular The Games Climbers Play as another confirmation of the diversity, humor, irony, drama and quality of the best mountaineering writing. The selection, which is deliberately international in character, contains items drawn from books, journals, newsletters and magazines. It features the writings of well known literary luminaries - Murray, Shipton, Schuster, Noyce, Tilman, Menlove Edwards, Clark, Lunn, Drasdo, Patey and Smith. In addition more contemporary work by Ed Drummond, Anne Sauvy, David Roberts, Greg Child, Rick Sylvester, Georges Bettembourg, Kim Carrigan, Pat Littlejohn, Michael Tobias, Mick Fowler, John Long, Max Jones, John Roskelley, Arlene Blum, Pat Ament and John Barry provides a powerful reaffirmation that the literary side of the sport remains strong. Sheridan Anderson's cartoons again add irony to the text.

An exhilarating sense of frenetic, free-wheeling activity emerges from the book. In it the climbing community holds up a mirror to itself - to its laughter, its humanity, its ambitions, its controversies, wisdoms and joys. (5 1/4 x 8 1/2, 688 pages, color photos, b&w photos, illustrations)

Genres: Adventure

688 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Jim Perrin is an English rock climber and travel writer.
Perrin has lived in Wales since the age of 17. Before turning to writing, he worked in Cwm Pennant as a shepherd. As a writer, he has made regular contributions to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines. As a climber, he has developed new routes, as well as making solo ascents of a number of established routes.

He has won the Boardman Tasker prize twice, first for Menlove (1985), his biography of John Menlove Edwards, and again as a joint winner (alongside Andy Cave's Learning to Breathe) for The Villain (2005), a biography of Don Whillans.

For many years he has contributed mountaineering obituaries for The Guardian (see, for example, the recent contribution on Brede Arkless). He has six children by six different partners, one, Will, also a talented climber, took his own life aged 24.

Reviews

[Alan Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful eclectic collection. I've been coinge back to my favorites stories for decades.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of stories, read in my early days as a climber, and great to dip into again.

Some real gems, and some absolutely hair-raising tales.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtfully put together anthology of climbing stories. Covers rock, ice, crags, big walls and mountains (there's also a piece on the fine art of tree climbing). The book kicks off with the superbly written "Coast to Coast on the Granite Slasher" by Australian climber Greg Child.