Ron Fawcett – Rock Athlete: The story of a climbing legend
Author(s): Ron Fawcett (Author), Ed Douglas (Author)
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: 8 Mar. 2010
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 264 pages
ISBN-10: 1906148171
ISBN-13: 9781906148171
Book Description
WINNER – The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.
Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix.
Ten years later, Fawcett was the most famous rock climber in Britain and among the best in the world, part of a new wave whose dedication to training transformed the sport, pushing standards further and faster than ever before – or since. His legacy of new climbs ranks him alongside the very best in the history of the sport.
He was also the first to style himself a professional rock climber, starring in the landmark television documentary Rock Athlete, and appearing on the covers of magazines around the world. But far from enjoying the fame, Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view.
Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top – and almost consumed him.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“‘A frank and engaging portrait of an unassuming yet remarkable climber; an inspirational subject and a story shot through with honesty and integrity.’ Boardman Tasker Prize Winner. ‘Muted in tone, the book is a rich pleasure: utterly real and worthy.’ Rock & Ice Magazine. ‘I don’t like this book, I love it. I read it twice in a day, and was still reading bits of it out aloud to myself that night.’ Stevie Haston, UKClimbing.com. ‘A fitting celebration of a climbing life well spent, of a decent ordinary man who just happened to be an extraordinary climber.’ Climber Magazine. ‘This book is essential reading; Ron is a connection to the recent past that’s so close in time but so distant in terms of climbing culture, attitudes, practices and ethics. He’s a living embodiment of the idea that climbing is the best training for climbing.’ Climb Magazine.”
About the Author
Ed Douglas has been climbing for over thirty-five years and has been a writer and editor for the last thirty. He launched the magazine On The Edge while at university in Manchester, and has published eight books about mountains and their people. His books include biographies of Tenzing Norgay, rock-climbing visionary Ben Moon and the late British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves. His ghostwritten autobiography of Ron Fawcett, Rock Athlete, won the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in 2010. Three of the essays in The Magician’s Glass were either shortlisted for or won at the Banff Mountain Book Festival in Canada. Douglas’s journalistic work most often appears in The Observer and The Guardian. He is the current editor of the Alpine Journal and lives in Sheffield with his wife Kate. They have two grown-up children.
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