14 17 NOVEMBER 2019 - PRESENTED AS PART OF KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL www.kendalmountainfestival.com
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PRESENTED AS PART OF KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
14 – 17 NOVEMBER 2019
EXPLORING CREATIVITY AND CONNECTION
IN LANDSCAPE, NATURE, PEOPLE AND PLACE
PRESENTING PARTNER MAJOR PARTNERS SUPPORTING PARTNERS
www.kendalmountainfestival.com
A WORD FROM OUR PATRON
ROBERT MACFARLANE
“My eyes were closed, and now they are open”, remarks Nan Shepherd
in The Living Mountain (1977), one of the defining works of twentieth-
century nature writing. Shepherd was describing the experience of
waking high in the Cairngorms after a night’s sleep; she was also, of course, referring to the
power of the living world to open our eyes more broadly. Mountains, forests, rivers, a patch
of edgeland where life flourishes; all can prompt new ways of seeing, belonging and relating,
Image: ‘Murmuration’ by Rowena Dugdale
all can cause deep shifts in the heart’s sense of itself.
To be open to the world is an ethical – even a political – stance, as well as an aesthetic one.
At a time when borders are being reinforced, positions hardened, prejudices deepened,
when walls are literally being built between communities and nation-states, openness
becomes vital. To be open means to welcome difference and change, to fight for equality
and generosity and to fight against barriers and enclosures; to walk wide-eyed with wonder
through this beautiful, vulnerable planet of ours. These are some of the qualities celebrated
by this year’s rich and diverse programme. Now, more than ever, we must keep our minds
and our mountains open.”
WELCOME TO KENDAL MOUNTAIN THE LITERATURE FESTIVAL TEAM
LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2019 PRESENTED BY FJÄLLRÄVEN
This year’s Festival theme is centred around ‘openness’. Openness ensures freedom and creativity;
the mainstays of mountain culture. It is both a call to action to the outdoor community and a
commitment from our programming team to challenge the status quo and broaden the people,
places, experiences and ideas represented on stage.
Our Literature Festival Director Paul Scully says, “Our Festival is a place where we can reflect on our
relationships with nature, landscape, society and to each other. A space where people are challenged
PAUL SCULLY HENRY IDDON CLAIRE CARTER
to be receptive to different ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We hope you are able to join us,
Literature Festival Director Arts and Culture Officer Artistic Director
no matter who you are, in this wonderful community of ideas, words and wanderings.”
Twenty years ago on the A bookshelf of adventure Claire discovered climbing whilst
This year we have a packed programme of writers, poets, historians, dancers and even an opera
banks of the River Frome, Paul books in Henry’s home on the UEA Creative Writing
singer! Hear from those who have kayaked the Atlantic coast, travelled to remote outposts around
spent the morning swimming sparked a curiosity for MA, and this sparked her
the world, walked the height of Everest in England and battled to save precious environments. We
with, and listening to, the mountain and adventure excitement for the challenge
are also proud to have launched ‘Open Mountain’ – a new voice in mountain and outdoor literature.
great Roger Deakin talk about travel that has seen him ski, of communicating kinaesthetic
After an open call for submissions this summer our judges selected five selected pieces of written
his book - Waterlog. It began climb, cycle and hike around experience in wilderness. Claire
work which will be performed at this session followed by a discussion with people under-represented a passionate journey exploring the world. His photographic has experimented with artistic
in the outdoors. nature writing, landscape, practice reflects a curiosity to collaboration and film as well as
We’re also delighted to once again have further expanded our Children’s Literature programme – interconnection and place. find new ways to explore the words, and so is thrilled to help
explore the authors and their wonderful books on page 42-43. He hopes audiences will mountain world visually. build the Literature Festival as a
Let us also take this opportunity to thank our patron, Robert Macfarlane for his unwavering support be inspired and will ask Henry introduces a broad multi-medium platform, which
and our presenting partner Fjällräven, plus our support partners and funders; who share our vision of themselves about their own range of writers and topics to imagines and reimagines our
creativity, imagination and inspiration. connection to nature. the Literature Festival, from relationship with place.
road cycling to mountain arts.
2 3
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
PLAN YOUR WEEKEND!
THURSDAY 14 NOV FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
19:00 20:00 21:00 13:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00
BREWERY ARTS CENTRE
Boardman Peter Owen Emily Pete Mike
Writers In The Julian Charlie Gere Peter David Gange
Tasker Award Jones Chappell Whittaker Open Berners-Lee Hanna
MALT ROOM
The Forest Willowherb Hoffman I Hate The Fiennes The Frayed
for Mountain Everest Where There’s Crack Mountain There Is No Tuullikki
Forestry England Review Irreplaceable Lake District Footnotes Atlantic Edge
Literature England A Will Climbing 17:30 – 19:00 Planet B 12:30 – 14:00
19:30 – 21:30 18:30 – 20:00 15:30 – 17:00 10:30 – 12:00 14:30 – 16:00 16:30 – 18:00
13:00 – 17:45 09:30 – 11:00 11:30 – 13:00 13:30 – 15:00 19:30 – 21:00
Simon
The Rough Grey Hen Richard Robert
Alex Michael Gill Tony Howard Catrina Grennan Dan
SOCIAL CENTRE
Press King David Smart Mihinnick
ABBOT HALL
Staniforth Stuff Davies Richards
Fellowship Edmund Quest Into Marie Duval’s
Further Than The Lark Paul Preuss Diary Of The
Another Peak Archive Hillary The Unknown Homesick Mountaineering Outpost
It Looks Ascending 15:30 – 17:00 Last Man
19:00 – 20:30 17:30 – 19:00 19:30 – 21:00 10:30 – 12:00 Bustle 14:30 – 16:00
09:30 – 11:00 11:30 – 13:00 13:30 – 15:00 16:30 – 18:00
12:30 – 14:00
SHAKESPEARE KENDAL TOWN HALL
FESTIVAL
SHAKESPEARE CENTRE SHAKESPEARE
BOOKSHOP
Dierdre
OTHER VENUES
CENTRE Peter CENTRE
Luke Turner Wolownick
Ben Tibbets Van Hulle A Celebration
Out Of Mountain of Ruskin The Sharp
Alpenglow
The Woods & Music End Of Life
19:00 – 20:30 09:30 – 11:00
21:00 – 22:30 19:00 – 20:30 14:30 – 16:00
KENDAL KENDAL KENDAL KENDAL BREWERY ARTS BREWERY ARTS
LIBRARY LIBRARY LIBRARY LIBRARY KENDAL LIBRARY CENTRE STUDIO CENTRE STUDIO
OTHER VENUES
Wainwright’s Wainwright’s Wainwright’s Wainwright’s
Spoken Word Gary Gibson Cumbria
Mountain Mountain Mountain Mountain
Guides Guides & A Pint Blood, Sweat Youth Dance
Guides Guides
09:45 – 11:15 – 13:45 – 15:00 – 19:00 – 21:00 & Smears Tethera
10:45 12:15 14:45 16:00 09:30 – 11:00 14:15 – 15:45
CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S
CHILDREN’S STORY CAMP
CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S
BREWERY ARTS CENTRE
LITERATURE LITERATURE LITERATURE LITERATURE LITERATURE
LITERATURE LITERATURE
Teddy Martin Jasbinder Lily Dyu Justin
Alex Danny
Keen Dorey Bilan Fantastic Anderson
Stewart Rurlander
Lost Book Of Kids Fight Asha & The Female Snow
Adventure Everest Adventurers Skylark
Plastic Spirit Bird Leopard
10:00 – 15:30 – 17:00 – 14:00 –
12:00 – 13:45 – 12:30 –
11:00 16:30 18:00 15:00
13:00 14:45 13:30
4 5
SPEAKERS 2019 SPEAKERS 2019
ALEX STANIFORTH ALEXANDRA AMANDA ANGE HARKER ANITA SETHI ASIM KHAN BEATRICE STANLEY BEN TIBBETTS CATRINA DAVIES CHARLIE GERE
Another Peak STEWART Children’s THOMSON The Open Mountain Open Mountain Open Mountain Spoken Word & A Pint Alpenglow Homesick I Hate The Lake District
p13 Literature p43 Willowherb Review p12 p24 p24 p24 p27 p14 p33 p32
CLAUDINE CMARIE CUMBRIAN DAN RICHARDS DANNY DAVID GANGE DAVID SMART DIERDRE EMILY CHAPPELL FAYE LATHAM
TOUTOUNGI FUHRMAN YOUTH DANCE Outpost RURLANDER The Frayed Atlantic Paul Preuss p23 WOLOWNICK The Where There’s A Will Spoken Word & A Pint
Open Mountain p24 Open Mountain p24 Tethera p36 p38 Children’s Literature p43 Edge p40 Sharp End Of Life p39 p18 p27
GARY GIBSON GERALDINE GREEN HANNA JAY G YING JASBINDER BILAN JESSICA J LEE JOY HOWARD JULIAN HOFFMAN JUSTIN ANDERSON KAREN LLOYD
Blood, Sweat & Smears Further Than It Looks TUULIKKI The Willowherb Review Children’s Literature The Willowherb Review Further Than It Looks Irreplaceable Children’s Literature Spoken Word & A Pint
p31 p19 p34 p12 p42 p12 p19 p22 p43 p27
KATE DAVIS LILY DYU LUKE TURNER MARTIN DOREY MAX LEONARD MICHAEL GILL MICK FOWLER MIKE BERNERS-LEE PETER FIENNES PETER OWEN
Open Mountain Children’s Literature Out Of The Woods Children’s Literature Rough Stuff Fellowship Edmund Hillary Boardman Tasker There Is No Planet B Footnotes JONES
p24 p43 p15 p43 p17 p25 p10 p26 p37 Everest England p16
PETER VAN HULLE PETE WHITTAKER POLLY ATKIN RACHAEL KIDD RICHARD KING ROBERT TEDDY KEEN TIFFANY TONY HOWARD ZAKIYA MCKENZIE
Mountain & Music p29 Crack Climbing Open Mountain Sugar Store Gallery The Lark Ascending MIHINNICK Diary Children’s Literature FRANCIS-BAKER Quest Into The Writers in the Woods
p20 p24 p46 p21 Of The Last Man p41 p42 Writers in the Woods p8 Unknown p28 p8
6 7
PROGRAMME THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER
Experience more
with Regent Holidays
regentholidays.co.uk
Contact to one of our travel experts today
WRITERS IN THE FOREST Russia & Europe: 0207 666 1244 | Alternative Asia: 0207 666 1258 | Iceland & Greenland: 0207 666 1290
TIFFANY FRANCIS-BAKER AND ZAKIYA MCKENZIE
7.30 – 9.30pm | Thursday 14 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10
From Wordsworth to J.K Rowling, England’s forests have inspired and
shaped the nation’s literary history for centuries. Discover more with
Rainbow Tours
As part of its centenary this year, the Forestry Commission launched
Tiffany Francis-Baker
a new writers’ residency to diversify voices found in nature writing.
During 2019, writers Tiffany Francis-Baker and Zakiya Mckenzie
spent time exploring the nation’s forests and meeting the people
looking after these majestic landscapes. Join Tiffany and Zakiya on a
journey into England’s woodlands, hearing excerpts of their work and
exploring where nature writing could go next.
Zakiya McKenzie is a writer, radio producer and presenter, currently
researching a PhD in literature on the different genres and personae
Caribbean writers took on when writing in the UK from 1940s to
Zakiya McKenzie
1980s. She has written for a number of publications and has been
involved in initiatives to improve sustainability, wellbeing and
innovation in Bristol.
Tiffany Francis-Baker is a freelance writer, author and artist
THIS EVENT specialising in nature, landscape and ethical living. Her first book,
IS PRESENTED BY
Food You Can Forage, was published in 2018, and she has recently
published her latest book Dark Skies. She has written and illustrated
for national publications including the Guardian, the Countryman and
Small Woods. Speak to one of our travel experts today
Africa & Madagascar: 020 7666 1250 | Latin America: 020 7666 1260
8 rainbowtours.co.uk 9
PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER
Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker
Image © Vertebrate Publishing
THE SHORTLIST
Mick Fowler David Smart
No Easy Way Paul Preuss
Mick Fowler is the master An intriguing biography of
of the small Himalayan renowned Austrian alpinist
expedition. He has been Paul Preuss, who achieved
at the forefront of this international recognition
approach for thirty years, for his remarkable solo
THE BOARDMAN TASKER AWARD balancing family life, work ascents and for his
FOR MOUNTAIN LITERATURE and annual trips to the advocacy of an ethically
THE BT SHORTLISTED AUTHORS EVENT greater ranges. ‘pure’ alpinism.
1 – 5.45pm | Friday 15 November
The Malt Room, Brewery Arts Centre | Tickets £12.50 Kate Harris Jeff Smoot
Lands of Lost Borders Hangdog Days
Established in 1983 to commemorate the lives of Peter Boardman and
The chronicle of Harris’ In his lively, fast-paced
Joe Tasker, the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust celebrates their legacy
odyssey on the fabled Silk history enriched with
by presenting the annual Award for Mountain Literature, presented to the
Road and an exploration insightful firsthand
author of an original work, which has made an outstanding contribution to
of the importance of experience, Jeff Smoot
mountain literature. Who will be the 36th winner of the coveted Boardman
breaking the boundaries vividly chronicles the
Tasker Award?
we set ourselves; a characters and events of
The shortlisted books are No Easy Way by Mick Fowler, Lands Of Lost meditation on the the raucous, revolutionary
Borders by Kate Harris, Inner Ranges by Geoff Powter, Paul Preuss by David essential longing to soar late ‘70s and ‘80s in rock
Smart, Hangdog Days by Jeff Smoot, The Equilibrium Line by David Wilson. completely out of bounds. climbing.
The confirmed authors attending are Mick Fowler, Geoff Powter, David
Smart, Jeff Smoot and David Wilson. Geoff Powter David Wilson
The Boardman Tasker Shortlisted Authors Event afternoon is hosted by Inner Ranges The Equilibrium Line
Stephen Venables. Stephen will chat with shortlisted authors and will include This collection includes From bouldering on
readings from the authors. This will be followed by the Chair of Judges provocative editorial Yorkshire grit and traditional
announcing the 2019 winner. and opinion work about climbs in Derbyshire and
the state of adventure, Wales to ice climbs on Ben
This year there were 38 books submitted from eight different countries personal tales from a life Nevis, the Alps and further
and the 2019 judges are novelist Roger Hubank (chair), editor-in-chief of of exploration and risk- afield these poems explore
Alpinist Katie Ives and climber & bibliophile Tony Shaw, all of whom will taking, and award-winning risk, falling and finding
be present. profiles of mountaineering balance – on rock, ice, and
greats. other places in our lives.
10 11
PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER
THE WILLOWHERB REVIEW ANOTHER PEAK
JESSICA J LEE, AMANDA THOMSON & JAY G YING ALEX STANIFORTH
6.30 – 8.00pm | Friday 15 November 7 – 8.30pm | Friday 15 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
The Willowherb Review is a ground-breaking new literary journal dedicated to diversity in Reaching Everest was always the dream, but after an avalanche
nature writing, publishing emerging and established writers of colour who take as their themes stopped Alex the first time and an earthquake the second, he had
place, environment, and nature. We are delighted to welcome the editor Jessica J Lee, and to take a step back. But even as he climbed down, he couldn’t
contributors Amanda Thomson and Jay G Ying to showcase the exciting work from Willowherb. stop wondering ‘What’s next?’
A restlessness in his bones, and a need to help make things better
Jessica J. Lee is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author, environmental
after the lives claimed in his two climbs, led Alex to his hardest
historian, and winner of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author Award. She
mission yet: ClimbTheUK; to cycle to the highest points of the
received a doctorate in environmental history and aesthetics in 2016, and her United Kingdom.
first book, Turning, was published in 2017. Jessica is the founding editor of
But a history of anxiety, depression, and eating disorders rears
The Willowherb Review.
its multiple heads once more, making this the hardest thing Alex
Amanda Thomson is a visual artist and writer who teaches at the Glasgow has ever had to do. Finding himself alone too often, with only
School of Art. A lot of her work – in art and writing – explores how we are his thoughts for company, it becomes less of a fight of man and
located (and locate ourselves) in the world, nature, flora and fauna, and is nature and more of man and mind.
often rooted in the highlands of Scotland. Her first book, A Scots Dictionary Alex joins us to share his second book Another Peak recalling this
of Nature, was published by Saraband Books in 2018. inspirational and compelling journey, exploring the peaks and
Jay G Ying is a poet, fiction writer, reviewer and translator based in troughs of mental health through the outdoors.
Edinburgh. His work can be found in The White Review, The Poetry Review,
Ambit, The Scores among others. He is a winner of the 2019 New Poet’s Prize, “A REMARKABLE STORY TOLD WITH GRIT AND HONESTY”
and was shortlisted twice for the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize. His MARK BEAUMONT
first poetry pamphlet, Wedding Beasts, is forthcoming from Bitter Melon.
12 13
PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER
© Ben Tibbetts
ALPENGLOW OUT OF THE WOODS
BEN TIBBETTS LUKE TURNER
7 – 8.30pm | Friday 15 November 9 – 10.30pm | Friday 15 November
Shakespeare Centre | Tickets £10 Festival Bookshop | Tickets £10
Join photographer Ben Tibbetts as he shares photographs, Author Luke Turner joins us to share his new book, Out of the
drawings and stories from the highest peaks of the European Alps. Woods. Turning the nature memoir genre upon its head...it is a
After nearly a decade of climbing to reach all 82 alpine summits honest, haunting and moving memoir about sexuality, shame
over 4000m, Ben Tibbetts describes his journey on each ascent and the lure of the trees.
through a series of stirring adventures, into which are woven After the disintegration of the most significant relationship of
stories from the historical climbs. his life, the demons Luke has been battling since childhood are
Ben works as an adventure photographer, artist and as an quick to return - depression and guilt surrounding his identity as
international certified (IFMGA) mountain guide. He has been a bisexual man, experiences of sexual abuse, and the religious
climbing in the Alps for nearly two decades. upbringing that was the cause of so much confusion. It is among
the trees of London’s Epping Forest where he seeks refuge. But
He says, “I set out on this project not only to climb all the
once a place of comfort, it now seems full of unexpected, elusive
highest peaks of the Alps but to produce the most beautiful and
threats that trigger twisted reactions.
fascinating book ever made about these mountains. I wanted to
make something that redefined the genre, a book that is as full of Shortlisted for the prestigious Wainwright Prize, Out of the Woods
stories as it is of art, a book of information and inspiration.” is a dazzling, devastating and highly original memoir about
the irresistible yet double-edged potency of the forest, and the
The event will be presented by climber Rob Greenwood.
possibility of learning to find peace in the grey areas of life.
“THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE SUMPTUOUS, INSPIRATIONAL, UNIQUE... “A BRAVE AND BEAUTIFUL BOOK, ELECTRIFYING ON SEX AND NATURE,
THE HISTORICAL RESEARCH METICULOUS, THE DRAWINGS BEAUTIFUL RELIGION AND LOVE”
AND THE TEXTS CAPTURE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF EACH ROUTE” OLIVIA LAING AUTHOR
VICTOR SAUNDERS AUTHOR, MOUNTAINEER & IFMGA MOUNTAIN GUIDE
14 15
PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
© Heathcliff O’Malley
EVEREST ENGLAND THE ROUGH STUFF FELLOWSHIP ARCHIVE
PETER OWEN JONES MARK HUDSON & MAX LEONARD
9.30 – 11am | Saturday 16 November 9.30 – 11am | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
A unique hill-walking guide with a culminative ascent the height Founded in 1955, the Rough-Stuff Fellowship is the world’s
of Everest – 29,000 feet in 12 days. oldest off-road cycling club. Its archive contains thousands of
BBC TV presenter and celebrity vicar Peter Owen Jones joins stunning images and documents – an unexpected treasure trove
us to share his own personal ‘Everest’ and to show us how we of incredible value that has recently been published in a book by
can embark on our own without leaving England’s green and Isola Press.
pleasant land. Ascending hills of varying sizes whose ascents The photos are evocative of a bygone style – of a time when you
add up to the same height as Mount Everest, countryman Peter might set off on a bike ride wearing a shirt and tie or a bobble hat,
guides the reader on a road trip covering hand-picked hill-climbs and no ride was complete without a stop to brew up some tea and
in different parts of England from Cumbria to Cornwall. smoke a pipe. They are also a record of intrepid adventures. RSF
This walking journey takes in sacred places found on coastal cliff riders explored the Lake District, the Cairngorms, the Alps, Iceland,
walks, ancient sites, tors, peaks, mountains and the highest peak even Everest, and their exploits were beautifully documented. In
in England. their own very British way, these men and women were pioneers,
pedalling and carrying their bikes where angels feared to tread.
This talk from Mark Hudson, Archivist at RSF, and Max Leonard,
Publisher at Isola Press celebrates their style and their spirit,
“I WANTED TO SEE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO GET ABOVE THE PLANE, showcasing not only an unseen corner of cycling history, but of
TO GET SOME PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE, BUT I HAD NO IDEA THAT WHAT British outdoor culture.
WOULD EMERGE IN THE WRITING OF IT WAS KIND OF WHAT LAY DEEP
“THIS WAS BIKEPACKING BEFORE ‘BIKEPACKING’; GRAVEL RIDING
WITHIN ME. IT WASN’T THE BOOK I WAS PLANNING TO WRITE”
BEFORE ‘GRAVEL RIDING’; ADVENTURE CYCLING BEFORE ‘ADVENTURE
PETER OWEN JONES
CYCLING” MARK HUDSON
16 17
PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
WHERE THERE’S A WILL FURTHER THAN IT LOOKS (BOOK LAUNCH)
EMILY CHAPPELL GREY HEN PRESS
11.30 – 1pm | Saturday 16 November 11.30 – 1pm | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
Endurance cyclist Emily Chappell shares her new book: a story of Awesome, immense, at once inviting and threatening,
transformation from London cycle courier to cross-continental bike mountains have inspired painters and poets, challenged the
racer, testing the limits of resilience and endurance. adventurous and offered a hard-won living to local people.
Despite seeing herself as distinctly normal, Emily has done Here are poems that celebrate their splendour and explore our
remarkable things, including being the first female finisher of relationship with them.
the infamous Transcontinental Race in 2016, which spanned the Joy Howard’s Grey Hen Press poets; Kerry Darbishire, Kate
width of Europe. The story of that race, in which she rode nearly Davis, Caroline Gilfillan, Geraldine Green and Hilary Tattershall
4,000 miles in thirteen days and ten hours, sleeping in short bursts join us to bring this anthology to life!
whenever exhaustion took her, is the centrepiece of a narrative of Grey Hen Press was first set up by Joy Howard in 2007. Grey
resilience and joy on a bike. Hen is a small independent press which publishes poetry by
Emily examines the sometime competing natures of comradeship, older women, concentrating in the first instance on producing
competition, vulnerability and will in a nuanced, insightful and themed anthologies. These showcase the particularity
inspiring tale of endurance and achievement. of women’s voices, and give less well-known poets the
A beautifully written book about a normal person finding the opportunity of having their work published alongside that of
capacity to do something extraordinary. established writers.
“CHAPPELL IS A GIFTED STORYTELLER”
OBSERVER
18 19PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
CRACK CLIMBING THE LARK ASCENDING
PETE WHITTAKER RICHARD KING
1.30 – 3pm | Saturday 16 November 1.30 – 3pm | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
Renowned crack climber, author and one half of the ‘Wide Boyz’ Join us to explore a history of Britain’s landscape and the music
Pete Whittaker shares his new guide, The Definitive Guide to that it inspires. Through a series of ‘headphone walks’ and
Crack Climbing. reflective interviews with musicians, filmmakers, ruralists and
Pete is widely regarded as one of the best crack climbers in the witnesses Richard King explores Britain’s rural landscapes and
world, having made dozens of cutting-edge first ascents and the compositions inspired by their beauty and drama. His journey
hard repeats, including the first ascent of Century Crack (5.14b) in takes us from Vaughan Williams and the landscape his generation
Canyonlands, Utah. With his many years of experience, Pete joins encountered as they returned after the armistice, through the
us to share tips and tricks from the world of crack climbing, as well decades to the New Age Travellers of the 1980s congregating
as his essential guide to gear and equipment. every year at Stonehenge.
Pete has interviewed some of the world’s top crack climbers so His unique and intimate history of a nation celebrates the British
that you can learn from the best. Gain insights from Lynn Hill, countryside as a living, working, and occasionally rancorous
Alex Honnold, Barbara Zangerl, Peter Croft and more. environment – rather than an unaffected idyll – that forged a
nation’s musical personality and provided a space in which life
Master the craft and advance your climbing. It’s time to jam!
could be experienced on its own terms and at its fullest, under
The book is not launched until January 2020 – however in this open skies, far away from the gaze of authority.
one-off event you will be able to buy Pete’s new book.
“IF EVERYBODY WHO READS THIS BOOK LEARNS JUST ONE THING THAT “THIS IS A BOOK TO SET YOU THINKING AND MAYBE DON THE
BENEFITS THEIR CLIMBING, I’LL BE A HAPPY AUTHOR. GET JAMMING!” HEADPHONES AND THE GORE-TEX, AND STRIDE OUT, MODISH
PETE WHITTAKER AND UNASHAMED”
STUART MACONIE
20 21PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
© Rowena Dugdale
IRREPLACEABLE PAUL PREUSS
JULIAN HOFFMAN DAVID SMART
3.30 – 5pm | Saturday 16 November 3.30 – 5pm | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
Join author Julian Hoffman in conversation with Karen Lloyd, for a talk David Smart joins us from Canada to share his biography of the
on his latest book, Irreplaceable. All across the world, irreplaceable renowned and compelling Austrian alpinist, Paul Preuss.
habitats are under threat. Unique ecosystems of plants and animals Paul Preuss is considered one of the founders of free climbing,
are being destroyed by human intervention. From the tiny to the vast, having achieved international recognition for his remarkable solo
from marshland to meadow, and from Kent to Glasgow to India to ascents and for his advocacy of climbing without any artificial
America, they are disappearing. aids. In the months before his death in 1913, from falling more
A book about the power of resistance in an age of loss; a testament than 300 metres during an attempt to make the first free solo
to the transformative possibilities that emerge when people come ascent of the North Ridge of the Mandlkogel, Preuss’s public
together to defend our most special places and wildlife from presentations on his climbing adventures filled concert halls in
extinction. Austria, Italy, and Germany.
Julian Hoffman traces the stories of threatened places around George Mallory, the famed English mountaineer who died on
the globe through the voices of local communities and grassroots Mount Everest in 1924, said, ‘no one will ever equal Preuss.’
campaigners as well as professional ecologists and academics. And And Reinhold Messner, the first climber to ascend all fourteen
in the process, he asks what a deep emotional relationship with place 8000 metre peaks, was so impressed by the young Austrian’s
offers us – culturally, socially and psychologically. In this rigorous, achievements that he built a mountaineering museum around
intimate and impassioned account, he presents a powerful call to Preuss’s piton hammer, wrote two books (in German) about him
arms in the face of unconscionable natural destruction. and instituted a foundation in Preuss’s name.
“POWERFUL, TIMELY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND WONDERFULLY HOPEFUL” “NO-ONE WILL EVER EQUAL PREUSS”
ROB COWEN AUTHOR GEORGE MALLORY
22 23PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
© Stuart Holmes
OPEN MOUNTAIN: INCLUSION & COLLECTION EDMUND HILLARY: A BIOGRAPHY
POLLY ATKIN, ANITA SETHI AND KATE DAVIS MICHAEL GILL
5.30 – 7pm | Saturday 16 November 5.30 – 7pm | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
Open Mountain: Inclusion and Connection is a new voice in mountain and Michael Gill joins us to share his new biography of an incredible
Anita Sethi
outdoor literature. A panel discussion with performance prose and poetry, man – Edmund Hillary – the New Zealand beekeeper who climbed
our event will showcase people under-represented in the outdoors. Mount Everest.
Following our open call for submissions this summer, we will be showcasing The author, Michael, was a close friend of Hillary’s for nearly 50
years, accompanying him on many expeditions and becoming
5 selected pieces of written work as selected by our judges: journalist Anita
heavily involved in Hillary’s aid work building schools and hospitals
Sethi and poets Polly Atkin and Kate Davis. We have welcomed submissions
in the Himalaya. During the writing of this book, Gill was granted
from low-income and working-class writers, writers from ethnic, cultural and access to a large archive of private papers and photos that were
Kate Davis religious minorities, LGBTQ+ writers and disabled writers. deposited in the Auckland museum after Hillary’s death in 2008.
This event aims to raise questions about who is allowed in or shut out of Building on this unpublished material, as well as his extensive
particular places and conversations about those places, and why. We want personal experience, Michael Gill profiles a man whose life was
to change those conversations. The mountain is open to everyone. shaped by both triumph and tragedy.
We were overwhelmed and deeply impressed by the breadth, range, and Affectionate, but scrupulously fair, in Edmund Hillary – A
Biography Michael Gill has gone further than anyone before to
quality of work submitted, and wished we could include more of it. We are
reveal the humanity of this remarkable man.
Polly Atkin
delighted to invite to the stage: CMarie Fuhrman - co-editor of Native Voices
(an anthology of Native American poetry), writer Claudine Toutoungi, poet “FOR THE CLIMBER, THE BOOK WILL BE ESSENTIAL READING, BUT THERE
THIS EVENT IS Asim Khan, walking guide and writer Ange Harker and author Kate Davies. IS MUCH HERE TOO IN THE MORE GENERAL APPEAL OF A LIFE WELL
SUPPORTED BY
See page 50 for an exclusive preview of some of the selected writers work SPENT, IN MAKING THE UTMOST OF ONE’S TALENTS, AND IN MAN’S
and more information on our Open Mountain initiative. PURSUIT OF GOALS AT THE LIMIT OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR”
MIKE BAILEY FOOTLESS CROW
24 25PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
THERE IS NO PLANET B SPOKEN WORD AND A PINT
MIKE BERNERS-LEE PRESENTED BY KAREN LLOYD
7.30pm – 9pm | Saturday 16 November 7 – 9pm | Saturday 16 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Kendal Library | Tickets £10
Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, Grab a drink from the bar and settle down for some serious
plastics – the list of concerns seems endless. literary revelry.
But which is most pressing, what are the knock-on effects of Hosted by award-winning local author Karen Lloyd, we will be
our actions, and what should we do first? Do we all need to joined by poets, storytellers and performers. We will welcome
become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? to the stage Geoff Cox, Beatrice Stanley, Faye Latham, Gary
Should we frack? How can we take control of technology? Liggett, Caroline Gilfillan, Mark Carson, Barbara Hickson, Chris
Does it all come down to population? And, given the global Dodd, Luke Brown, Jonathan Humble and Jemima Longcake,
nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can who will make this a spoken word evening like no other!
any of us do? Luke Brown
For an irreverent night of spoken word that packs a punch, don’t
Fortunately, Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers miss this wild night of poetic entertainment.
and plotted a course of action that is practical and even
enjoyable. His book There is No Planet B maps it all out in
an accessible and entertaining way, filled with astonishing
facts and analysis.
“I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK...A BEACON OF COMMON SENSE,
CLARITY AND – CRUCIALLY – HOPE”
CAROLINE LUCAS MP
26 27PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER
Image © Sophie Pierce
QUEST INTO THE UNKNOWN MOUNTAIN & MUSIC
TONY HOWARD PETER VAN HULLE
7.30pm – 9pm | Saturday 16 November 7 – 8.30pm | Saturday 16 November
Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10 Shakespeare Centre | Tickets £10
Join Tony Howard to discover the jaw-dropping account of a life of Mountains and the upland landscape have always been an
adventure that is the very definition of true exploration. integral influence to musicians going back centuries. However,
Tony Howard rose to fame in 1965 as a member of a group of until the late 18th century, nature itself was seen as something
young climbers from northern England who made the first British to be tamed and if that was not possible, then to be avoided.
ascent of Norway’s Troll Wall; a climb described by Joe Brown as, Mountains were obstacles, places of danger, immense,
‘One of the greatest ever achievements by British rock climbers’. immovable and uninviting. However, with the dawn of the
Tony went on to design the modern sit harness, now used Peter Van Hulle Romantic age came a distinct shift in this symbiosis. As poets,
universally by every climber in the world. He founded the company composers and artists began to explore upland regions, both
Troll Climbing Equipment but never stopped exploring. Quest into through travel and for leisure, then the mountain went from
the Unknown is his story. being a source of fear to being a source of inspiration.
Tony has dedicated his life to travelling the world in search of Accompanied by Michael Cayton on the piano, Peter Van Hulle
unclimbed rock faces and remote trekking adventures. This book, (Dutch National Opera and English National Opera amongst
the last word in adventure travel, takes the reader from Tony’s others) will explore and demonstrate the many ways that the
youth spent developing the crags of the English Peak District, via uplands have affected composers and performers and focus
whaling ships in the Southern Ocean, thousand-mile canoe trips on the role of the mountain in opera and art song, its wider
in the Canadian Arctic, living amongst the Bedouin in the rocky influence on classical music and also how the very contours of
mountains of Jordan, to the isolated opium tribes of Thailand. the landscape shaped some of the best known melodies we
have today.
“THIS BOOK OFFERS A VOYAGE INTO THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF MANY
PEOPLES. IT WOULD SIT COMFORTABLY IN ANY LIBRARY RECORDING
GREAT EXPLORATION” TGO MAGAZINE
28 29PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
A CELEBRATION OF RUSKIN BLOOD SWEAT AND SMEARS
9.30 – 11am | Sunday 17 November GARY GIBSON
Shakespeare Centre | Tickets £10 9.30 – 11am | Sunday 17 November
2019 is the bicentenary of the visionary art critic, writer, artist Brewery Arts Centre Studio | Tickets £10
and thinker John Ruskin. In this exclusive event presented by Some people collect records, some people collect football
Lancaster University and The Ruskin and chaired by Professor programmes and some people train spot. Gary collects new
Sandra Kemp, Director of the Ruskin-Library, Museum routes.
and Research centre, we explore and celebrate Ruskin’s Gary is well known throughout the UK for his new routing. In
extraordinary life and legacy. fact, with almost 5000 to his name there’s a good chance you’ve
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a writer, artist and philanthropist. climbed one of them! Bedevilled by controversy, mostly of his
As an author he commanded international respect, attracting own making, Gary has gone his own way and clashed with the
praise from figures as varied as Tolstoy, George Eliot, Proust climbing establishment of the day.
John Ruskin
and Gandhi. He wrote on a dizzying variety of subjects: art and Over time, British climbing has changed immeasurably – and so
THIS EVENT IS PRESENTED BY architecture, nature and craftsmanship, literature and religion, has Gary. Gary has more than just climbing in his life: his love for
political economy and social justice. He also worked tirelessly his favourite ‘punk’ band, his inherited love for his football club,
for a better society; the depth and range of his thinking, his his long and continuous commitment to his profession and more
often fierce critique of industrial society and its impact on both than anything his love for his family and friends.
people and their environment, and his passionate advocacy of
a sustainable relationship between people, craft and nature, Love him or loathe him, here Gary shares his thoughts and
remain as pertinent today as they were in his own lifetime. memories giving the reader a personal insight into this
‘controversial’ man.
“GIBSON IS PROBABLY THE EPITOME OF THE CLIMBING OBSESSIVE.
LIKE A DOG ON DIURETICS IN A LAMP POST FACTORY GARY HAS
BEEN THERE, SEEN IT AND DONE A NEW ROUTE ON IT...”
WHO’S WHO IN BRITISH CLIMBING
30 31PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
I HATE THE LAKE DISTRICT (BOOK LAUNCH) HOMESICK
CHARLIE GERE CATRINA DAVIES
10.30am – 12pm | Sunday 17 November 10.30am – 12pm | Sunday 17 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
Charlie Gere offers a different vision of the rural environment from Catrina Davies shares the story of her new book, Homesick: a
those found in much contemporary nature writing. memoir of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, a
Based on his trips around North West England, including visits to comment on class, economics, mental health and nature, and a
the defunct nuclear power station at Sellafield, home of all British thoughtful examination of what we mean by ‘home’.
nuclear waste; the mysterious and deathly Morecambe Bay; Aged thirty-one, Catrina Davies was renting a box-room in a house
sites of slavery in the North West; places where UFOs have been in Bristol. Working several jobs and never knowing if she could
sighted, avant-garde artists created work, and Islamic terrorists make the rent, she felt like she was breaking apart.
trained; shantytowns where the navvies who built the railways Homesick for the landscape of her childhood in west Cornwall,
lived with their families; and even the remains of Blobbyland in Catrina decides to give up the box-room and face her demons.
Morecambe. As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now,
In his book Charlie engages with nuclear power and nuclear war, she resolves to make a tiny, dilapidated shed a home of her own.
slavery, imperialism, ghosts, love, God, cockroaches, and the sheer With the freedom to write, surf and make music, Catrina rebuilds
violence and contingency of ‘nature’ itself – of which the human the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. On the border
presence is merely a part. This event challenges the bourgeois of civilisation and wilderness, between the woods and the sea, she
pastoralism of popular nature writing and reveals the landscape discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a
of North West England as profoundly unnatural and strange. fragile natural world.
“GERE UNDOES THE AESTHETICS AND WELL-WORN TALES OF THE “YOU WILL MARVEL AT THE BEAUTY OF THIS BOOK,
LAKES TO PROVIDE A DARKER, STRANGER, AND MORE WONDROUS AND RAGE AT THE INJUSTICE IT REVEALS”
LANDSCAPE” RON BROGLIO PROFESSOR, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY GEORGE MONBIOT
32 33PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
HANNA TUULIKKI MARIE DUVAL’S MOUNTAINEERING BUSTLE
12.30 – 2pm | Sunday 17 November SIMON GRENNAN
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 12.30 – 2pm | Sunday 17 November
Join artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki as she Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
shares her multi-disciplinary art with us. Join Simon Grennan for an introduction to the contrasting world
Hanna Tuulikki is an artist, composer and performer based of Victorian travel and mountaineering through the work of
in Scotland. In research-led projects, she works with voice maverick London cartoonist Marie Duval. In the 1870s, Europe’s
and gesture, investigating the ways in which the body first female cartoonist climbed the heights of mirth by drawing
communicates beyond and before words. illustrations, cartoons and full comic strips about the English
abroad, on mountaineering holidays and mountain tours.
With a particular interest in the practice of ‘mimesis’ within
musical and movement traditions across cultures, her work Simon Grennan is a graphic novelist and scholar of comic strips.
explores the place of folk narratives, memory, ritual and His most recent book, Drawing in Drag by Marie Duval, continues
technology within specific environments. the work of Marie Duval, his co-authored 2018 book which
Tuulikki’s innovative practice spans site-specific performance, showcased the work of a forgotten Victorian cartoonist for the
audiovisual installation and interactive new media, blending first time. He is also author of A Theory of Narrative Drawing
together vocal composition, choreography, costume and (2017), and Dispossession, a graphic adaptation of Trollope’s John
visual score drawings. Her critically acclaimed work has been Caldigate, which was named as one of The Guardian’s Books of
commissioned and presented by organisations internationally, the Year in 2015. He is Leading Research Fellow in the Faculty of
across visual, musical and performing arts. For the session, she Arts and Humanities at the University of Chester.
will introduce a selection of her recent works.
“A CONFIDENT, ELEGANTLY PRODUCED AND RICHLY LAYERED WORK “A SUPERB STUDY...COMBINING FASCINATING INSIGHT WITH HONESTY
THAT TRANSLATES SOMETHING ELEMENTAL ABOUT NATURE AND AND APPRAISAL, WE’RE TREATED TO AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY
RITUAL WITHOUT EVER EDGING TOWARDS THE BOMBASTIC” INTO THE WORLD OF LATE VICTORIAN HUMOUR...A POSITIVELY
DEER DANCER REVIEW THE SPECTATOR GLORIOUS VISUAL ACCOUNT” JOHN FREEMAN DOWN THE TUBES
34 35PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
© Alfonso Ninguno
TETHERA FOOTNOTES
CUMBRIA YOUTH DANCE PETER FIENNES
2.15pm – 3.45pm | Sunday 17 November 2.30pm – 4pm | Sunday 17 November
Brewery Arts Centre Studio | Tickets £10 Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10
An exciting opportunity to watch Topos: Tethera – a unique piece Peter Fiennes joins us to share an illuminating journey into
of vertical choreography, exploring the relationship between Britain’s past and present.
climbing and dance, on the big screen! And to hear from those Beginning with Enid Blyton’s favourite holiday spot, the Isle of
behind the film. Purbeck, setting for many of her children’s stories, Peter embarks
Funded by Arts Council England, Cumbria Youth Dance Company on a unique exploration of Britain. He follows in the footsteps of
has worked alongside Wired Aerial Theatre to create a suite of some of our greatest writers, tracing paths recorded in their books
connected choreography; a stage piece which was performed and journals, and looking for the country they once knew. He
at The Lowry and Theatre by the Lake in March; an outdoor joins Somerville and Ross on their ascent of Snowdon; revisits the
performance shared at Brantwood, Coniston in May and Lakes English journey of JB Priestley in the 30s and Beryl Bainbridge in
Alive, Kendal in September; and a dance film which will be the 80s, and accompanies Dickens from his house in Gad’s Hill to
screened and debated as part of our Festival. his final resting place in Westminster Abbey.
The project – Topos – takes its name from the special notation Blending travel writing, history and biography, wide-ranging and
climbers use to describe their routes on paper. A similar notation deeply personal, Footnotes is a fascinating quest to discover
method exists in dance, called Labanotation, and over the course Britain anew.
of this project these young dancers have explored the connection
between vertical & horizontal movement to produce three unique
pieces of choreography. “PART TRAVELOGUE, PART BIOGRAPHY, PART MEDITATION ON BRITISH
Presented by Professor Jonathan Pitches and with a panel of those IDENTITY, FOOTNOTES IS ALTOGETHER DELIGHTFUL, AND FIENNES IS
involved in creating the film, this event will discuss the process and A WISE AND GENIAL TRAVELLING COMPANION”
the relationship between dance and climbing. GREGORY NORMINTON AUTHOR
36 37PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
Dierdre Wolownick with her son Alex Honnold
© Amy Mountjoy
OUTPOST THE SHARP END OF LIFE
DAN RICHARDS DIERDRE WOLOWNICK-HONNOLD
2.30pm – 4pm | Sunday 17 November 2.30 – 4pm | Sunday 17 November
Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10 Kendal Town Hall | Tickets £10
Join Dan Richards as he journeys to some of the world’s less- Join us as we welcome author, climber and mother Dierdre
traveled places. An exploration of the outposts set along the Wolownick from the USA to share stories and images from her
edges of civilisation and the impact that visiting these has on new memoir The Sharp End of Life.
the human spirit. At 66, Dierdre became the oldest woman to climb El Capitan in
Dan explores the appeal of far-flung outposts in mountains, tundra, Yosemite – and she reveals how her climbing achievement reflects
forests, oceans and deserts. Landscapes that speak of deep time, a broader story of courage and persistence as she finds new
whose scale can knock us down to size. Their untamed nature is part strength, happiness, and community in the outdoors.
of their beauty and such places have long drawn the adventurous, Diedre says, “Over the years, I’ve often heard about ‘the
the spiritual and the artistic. season’ in Yosemite. [My son], Alex Honnold and his friends and
Following a route from the Cairngorms of Scotland to the fire-watch colleagues train there spring and fall each year. They make history.
lookouts of Washington State, from Iceland’s ‘Houses of Joy’ to I’ve had many ‘seasons’ during my decades as a teacher, writer,
the Utah desert; frozen ghost towns in Svalbard to shrines in Japan, conductor, mother. Seasons for exams. For traveling. For concerts.
Richards explores landscapes which have inspired writers, artists But my Yosemite season has been like no other. Each year, when
and musicians, and asks: why are we drawn to wilderness? What can Alex and I climb together, I think, ‘I’ll never top that!’ And each
we do to protect them? And what does the future hold for outposts year, I do.”
on the edge?
“RICHARDS’S PROSE IS BY TURNS BEAUTIFUL, FUNNY, EVOCATIVE AND “A MOTHER’S TALE OF LATE-LIFE ROLE REVERSAL, HOW SHE OPENED
LEARNED, THE PAGES ILLUMINATED BY LOVELY, WARMING FOOTNOTES” HERSELF UP TO LEARN IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM HER GROWN
ALEX PRESTON THE GUARDIAN CHILDREN” OUTSIDE ONLINE
38 39PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER PROGRAMME SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER
THE FRAYED ATLANTIC EDGE DIARY OF THE LAST MAN
DAVID GANGE ROBERT MIHINNICK & EAMON BOURKE
4.30pm – 6pm | Sunday 17 November 4.30pm – 6pm | Sunday 17 November
Brewery Arts Centre Malt Room | Tickets £10 Abbot Hall Social Centre | Tickets £10
A brand new voice in nature and travel writing, David Gange, We welcome Robert Minhinnick and Eamon Bourke to Kendal to
shares his new work, The Frayed Atlantic Edge, a whirlwind trip share his newest volume of poetry, Diary of the Last Man, and the
along Britain’s coasts from Shetland to Cornwall. exceptional film that has been created to sit alongside it.
Travelling by kayak, on foot and at the end of a rope, David An imaginative, intimate portrait of the writer Robert Minhinnick,
encounters wildcats, basking sharks and vast colonies of seabirds, created by director Eamon Bourke, the film charts a walk between
as well as rich and diverse coastal communities. Spending nights the mouths of the rivers Cynffig and Ogwr on the south coast of
in sight of the sea, outdoors and without a tent, the journey Wales. A beguiling cinematic experience that shifts and turns with
crosses hundreds of peaks and millions of waves. the tide following the poet and his alter egos deep into the hidden
The historian and nature writer set out to travel the seaboard in landscapes illuminated in this award winning collection.
the course of a year. This coastline spans just eight-hundred miles The opening poem sequence sets the tone for the collection,
as the crow flies, but the complex folds of its firths and headlands a celebration of the dwindling Earth, an elegy, a caution. The
stretch more than ten-thousand. Even those who circumnavigate sequence remembers all the geographies of his earlier work, old
Britain by kayak tend to follow the shortest route; the purpose of and new world, but now unpeopled and the lonely spirit free to go
this journey was to discover these coastlines by seeking out the anywhere, do anything, but meaning with mankind has drained
longest. away. Yet still alive, and still with language, registering.
“THIS BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND GRIPPINGLY RESEARCHED BOOK “BLEAKLY ELEGIAC, ENVIRONMENTALLY POLITICAL, VITAL AND
SHOWS US THAT OUR SHORES ARE THE BEGINNING, NOT THE VISIONARY, HIS POEMS CAST AN EXTRAORDINARY LIGHT OVER OUR
ENDING, OF THINGS” DARKENING LANDSCAPES”
PHILIP HOARE AUTHOR CAROL ANN DUFFY POET
40 41PROGRAMME CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
EVEREST
ALEXANDRA STEWART AND JOE TODD-STANTON
THE CHILDREN’S 3.30 – 4.30pm | Saturday 16 November
LITERATURE PROUDLY
SPONSORED
Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1
Everest tells the story of how Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
FESTIVAL BY made their mark on the world from birth right up to their final days
and the impact they’ve had on Nepal today. This brilliant book
From picture books to novels, stories can help build empathy and understanding
combines fresh and contemporary illustrations by Joe Todd-Stanton
of the world around us. We are proud to introduce a literature programme for young people
with Alexandra Stewart’s captivating writing and publishes in time to
to Kendal, featuring six inspiring authors suitable for ages six to fifteen.
celebrate the centenary of Edmund Hillary’s birth.
THE LOST BOOK OF ADVENTURE TEDDY KEEN
10 – 11am | Saturday 16 November BOOK LAUNCH!
Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1 FANTASTIC FEMALE ADVENTURERS LILY DYU
Be transported by riveting adventure tales from around the globe; like 5 – 6pm | Saturday 16 November
being dragged off by a hyena in Botswana, surviving a Saharan dust Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1
storm, being woken by an intrepid emperor penguin in Antarctica, Fantastic Female Adventurers is a collection of exciting and
and coming face-to-face with a venomous bushmaster (one of the inspirational stories about women. Join Lily on awesome adventures
most dangerous snakes on the planet) – all told in lyrical prose and with Anna McNuff, Sarah Outen, Misba Khan and more taking you
illustrations that wonder at the mysterious beauty of the wild. from Everest to the South Pole and all the places in between.
KIDS FIGHT PLASTIC MARTIN DOREY SNOW LEOPARD: GREY GHOST OF THE MOUNTAIN
12 – 1pm | Saturday 16 November JUSTIN ANDERSON
Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1 12.30 – 1.30pm | Sunday 17 November
Have you got 2 minutes? That’s all the time it takes to become a Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1
#2minutesuperhero. We need superheroes to fight plastic and help A spellbinding new Nature Storybook about snow leopards, with words
save our oceans. This essential book shows how you can become a by Planet Earth producer and first-time children’s author Justin
#2minutesuperhero by completing 50 missions to fight plastic at home, Anderson and pictures from award-winning artist Patrick Benson.
school and on your days out. This guide for children is written by Join us on a journey high into the snowy peaks of the Himalaya, and discover
Martin Dorey, anti-plastic campaigner and author of the bestselling the secret world of a rare and utterly majestic creature – how it has adapted
No. More. Plastic. to the harsh environment it lives in and how it looks after its young.
ASHA AND THE SPIRIT BIRD JASBINDER BILAN SPYLARK DANNY RURLANDER
1.45 – 2.45pm | Saturday 16 November
2 – 3pm | Sunday 17 November
Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1
Brewery Arts Centre Children’s Story Camp | Tickets £5 / U16s £1
Asha lives in the foothills of the Himalayas. Money is tight and she misses
Ever since the accident, Tom’s struggled to walk. But he has a secret
her papa who works in the city. When he stops sending his wages, a
escape: Skylark, his drone.
ruthless moneylender ransacks their home and her mother talks of
leaving. Asha makes a pact with her best friend, Jeevan, to find her father Through this technology, he can fly above his Lake District home,
and make things right. But the journey is dangerous: they must cross exploring his world from a totally different perspective. But when
the world’s highest mountains and face hunger, tiredness – even snow he stumbles upon a terrorist plot, he must find a way to stop it...
leopards. And yet, Asha has the unshakeable sense that the spirit bird before it’s too late.
of her grandmother – her nanijee – will be watching over her.
42 43PROGRAMME CHILDREN’S LITERATURE PROUD SPONSOR
OF THE CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE EVENTS
R E
KENDAL FOR SCHOOLS
T U
Friday 15 November | Kendal Leisure Centre
E N EES
Following the success of last year’s expanded Kendal for
D V
Schools sessions, we are delighted to once again offer free
A E HIG T R
access for local schools.
H
C
This will be an amazing opportunity to hear from real life
M
adventurers and explorers including science presenter Huw
IN TH
James, adventurer and environmentalist Cal Major and Y
The Lost Adventurer author Teddy Keen. There will also be an CM
exciting selection of adventure films to be enjoyed!
MY
It promises to be a fun, engaging and interesting event for
teachers and students alike! CY
CMY
K
FREE FAMILY SESSIONS
ALFRED WAINWRIGHT’S MOUNTAIN GUIDES OPEN
FREE SESSIONS FOR FAMILIES ALL YEAR
Saturday 16 November | Kendal Library
One hour sessions at 9.45am, 11.15am, 1.45pm & 3pm
ROUND
In this 60 minute interactive session for families, explore how
Alfred Wainwright produced his guidebooks.
You can create your own Wainwright illustrations too!
Sessions at Kendal Library, Stricklandgate, Kendal, LA9 4PY.
Tickets are free, but need to be booked via the our website.
Children under 8 must be accompanied by a responsible person.
These family sessions are provided by Cumbria Archive Service and
Kendal Library. 015394 47186
44 www.treetoptrek.co.uk 45MOUNTAIN ARTS MOUNTAIN ARTS
2018 Grand Prize Winner:
George Karbus
ART AT KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITON
Art remains an integral part of Kendal Mountain Festival and we have worked closely Intro Bar
with the Brewery Arts Centre to curate a diverse range of artwork from talented local
Welcome to the Kendal Mountain Festival The twelve shortlisted images will be displayed
and national artists. Dive in and enjoy each artist’s contribution to the ‘Outdoor’ genre
Photography Competition. We are delighted for six weeks in a prestigious exhibition at the
and their personal celebration of landscape, nature and place.
to have Heart of the Lakes as our 2019 Brewery Arts Centre, including over the Festival
Photography Competition presenting weekend. The winner will be announced at the
BREWERY ARTS CENTRE partner. Now in its 12th year, this prestigious Awards Ceremony on Saturday 16 November
competition has cemented a reputation for at 7.30pm in the Basecamp Village.
RACHAEL KIDD OPEN OUT / OPEN IN discovering new talent and celebrating some The winner will receive a £500 voucher to
Sugar Store Gallery of the most captivating imagery from the spend on a holiday with Heart of the Lakes,
world of outdoor adventure. plus one of our world-renowned ‘Kendal’
Rachael Kidd’s work is primarily about the landscape and how
we fit within it. She digs deep into ‘Landscape’ as a subject as Henry Iddon, our Arts Officer and professional awards, produced by Andy Parkin.
she attempts to move away from seeing her environment as photographer, says: “This year we are To enter visit kendalmountainfestival.com
a simply framed and romanticised place, and more towards looking for images from the world of outdoor Entries close on 2 November 2019.
it being a complex structure for experience – a cognitive adventure that fit with our Festival theme of
landscape – a sensuous and animate world. ‘Openness’. A call to the Festival, audiences
and adventurers to be open to all people,
Main image: With this body of work she asks; What is the unseen
Extinction Rebellion, oil on canvas places and ideas. With this theme in mind,
landscape? What lies beyond the surface and is this where true
Image above: we encourage entries that celebrate a wide
wilderness resides? Is the world perceiving itself through us, as
Section of Earth, 2013 variety of adventures and a wide variety of
we do through it?
landscapes. From the shores of an isolated
Drawing upon a range of mediums, her work is an inquiry tarn here in the Lake District, to a paddle down
into the surface of things as points of direct proximity an urban canal to the solitude of a high alpine
and exchanges between ourselves and our environment, peak. We want to see what adventure means
celebrating how our mind and body are able to open up to you!”
infinitely as a we explore our surroundings and imagine what
2018 Runner Up: Ben Tibbetts
lies beyond.
46 47You can also read
