tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post6435278807226139730..comments2024-03-29T13:05:42.663+00:00Comments on conradwalks: INSPIRATIONSir Hughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17908756392825206914noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-56978507206798300352016-04-18T21:58:22.640+01:002016-04-18T21:58:22.640+01:00beating the bounds - Very good. you have understoo...beating the bounds - Very good. you have understood exactly what I was getting at. I will be having a look at some of your titles.Sir Hughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17908756392825206914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-6636612825821868502016-04-18T21:50:54.766+01:002016-04-18T21:50:54.766+01:00What a great idea - books that have actually had a...What a great idea - books that have actually had an influence. I've read and reread Hamish Brown, Nicholas Crane and also John Hillaby's long walks, although I've never actually embarked on a huge journey like any of theirs. In a similar vein look out for 'Mean Feat' by John Waite - less well known, but also very good.<br />The 'Big Walks' books were more directly influential - my Dad had them and loved the idea and we walked some very long routes when I was in my teens - the Derwent Watershed in the peak for instance.<br />I've given this some thought and I think personally I'd have to choose the Evans' scrambling guides to the Lakes, 'The Winding Trail' edited by Roger Smith which I've turned to again and again, and 'Food for Free' by Richard Mabey which got me looking closely at plants and fungi trying to identify them. His essays also inspired me with the idea of doorstop walks frequently repeated and the richness of both the familiarity that brings bit also the changes with the passing seasons and years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-69973079844825569142016-04-18T18:30:11.226+01:002016-04-18T18:30:11.226+01:00I'm pretty sure that specific, direct inspirat...I'm pretty sure that specific, direct inspiration from others' writings is quite rare and sometimes, even often, ill-fated - but your citation of 'influence' in thinking and possibly in motivation is both the more likely and more likely to be useful and beneficial - eg Clausewitz' 'doctrines' - organisation, planning, persistence, endurance and intelligence - have wide relevance in business, politics, mountaineering - and even local affairs - not just for defeating the French or Russians in pitched battle! These may even be the common, but sometimes faint, threads running through the other books listed - Herries, Hodgkin, Churchill all - what cannot be denied is the failure of these 'exemplars' to have much actual influence . . . or made much difference . . . despite wishful thinking it might be so ! <br />Was it not Coolidge who said (I paraphrase) that genius (ie inspiration) without planning and persistence is the hobgoblin of the destitute down the ages.<br />gimmernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-46447238394363487682016-04-17T08:55:22.290+01:002016-04-17T08:55:22.290+01:00I was about to make a similar comment to your firs...I was about to make a similar comment to your first reply to RR. I think one if the reasons Hamish Brown's book, for example, is so effective at immersing the reader in all that he is experiencing is precisely because the book is essentially his daily journal. His account of almost becoming a hypothermia victim in Knoydart is a good example.<br /><br />A counter to that I suppose is W H Murray's 'Mountaineering in Scotland', a book which influenced me more than any other has ever done.<br /><br />afootinthehillshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06670636358354420373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-47189950502980358792016-04-17T07:56:04.516+01:002016-04-17T07:56:04.516+01:00Afoot - thanks for your contribution. That is what...Afoot - thanks for your contribution. That is what I was looking for. I will be researching some of your suggestions.<br /><br />----------------------<br /><br />RR - I agree up to a point about the post action writing, but you can't get away from the drama anguish and honesty that comes through from Ellen when sourced from logs, emails, sound and video diaries produced in real time.<br /><br />----------------------<br /><br />gimmer - Ok, but has your study of military history given you inspiration? Has it influenced you to take certain courses of action? As you know I have read Rogue Herries (RR please note) and although it is a fine novel with many familiar and nostalgic Lake District references I can't say that it inspired me, by which I mean influenced me to proceed with some particular action. Scouting for boys I suppose was an influence - it was a long time ago, but I think even then at that young and less critical age there were aspects of it that we took "with a pinch of salt".<br /><br />------------------------<br /><br />RR -For the record, I thought you should know, I also have read Rogue Herries, and it wasn't from a Granny Robinson recommendation - note the optional spelling of granny.Sir Hughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17908756392825206914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-25866975012176116362016-04-16T09:01:18.925+01:002016-04-16T09:01:18.925+01:00Grannie Robinson read Rogue Herries (I haven't...Grannie Robinson read Rogue Herries (I haven't). I thought both you and Gimmer should know this.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-16856021016322911202016-04-16T00:00:46.739+01:002016-04-16T00:00:46.739+01:00- and I forgot to add the most important of all
Sc...- and I forgot to add the most important of all<br />Scouting for Boys <br />and<br />Camping and Woodcraft <br />where would any outdoorsman be without these !gimmernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-20817605915663639402016-04-15T23:44:26.449+01:002016-04-15T23:44:26.449+01:00i agree with your other comment-ers - one of the m...i agree with your other comment-ers - one of the most interesting and thought-provoking posts of all time:<br />as with the others, it made me wonder what books have had the sort of influence on me that these have had on you.<br />I cannot honestly recall that any 'mountain' or 'outdoor' books as such have had that sort of life-long dynamic effect that these have on you, although Elizabeth Arthur's Antarctic Navigation (fiction) or her Island Sojourn (fact) have had a late infuence, and Into the Silence was humbling indeed, but in different spheres there are others - it would be pretentious to mention some (eg Ceasar's Gallic Wars or the Aeneid - 'facilis descenus averno' hanging over me like a sword of Damocles ) and oddly, the ones I recall most were fiction - Fame is the Spur, Rogue Herries and the chronicles - and some biographies - Dorothy Hodgkin, of course, and 'autobiographical history' eg The World Crisis - I suppose Clausewitz must feature also, but probably the most seminal was Hope and Memory by Todorov, dissecting 20C totalitarianism, and which finally takes the palm.gimmernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-3500125506934453202016-04-14T09:03:12.943+01:002016-04-14T09:03:12.943+01:00Another great travel book, written by a Frenchman ...Another great travel book, written by a Frenchman (name forgotten), describes the vicissitudes experienced by a quartet of French lads driving a Deux Chevaux from Tierra del Fuego to Los Angeles. Very French I have to say; very laconic. And I fear a counterpunch to your assertion about immediacy. The adventure may be immediate but the best writing is almost always the product of reflection and correction. This holds true even when the aim is to <i>convey</i> immediacy. Ref. Maurice Herzog's Annapurna - yet another Frenchman. You no doubt believe I live in their pockets. You can, if you wish, and as you have done before, label this as my obsession. I freely confess. Robert Browning has a lot to answer for.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-39464897312665528232016-04-13T12:02:08.140+01:002016-04-13T12:02:08.140+01:00Lynne has just reminded me of Myrtle Simpson's...Lynne has just reminded me of Myrtle Simpson's 'Viking, Scots and Scraelings' 1977. A kayaking trip on the Greenland coast with her three young children. Also by the same author 'Home is a Tent' and 'Due North' We borrowed these books from the library shortly after publication and remember being inspired by her, although the detail is now long forgotten.<br /><br />If the name happens to be unfamiliar to you Conrad, here is a link to some information and a video.<br /><br />http://www.mountainfestival.co.uk/myrtle-simpson.htmlafootinthehillshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06670636358354420373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-45422953021982842042016-04-13T10:11:53.094+01:002016-04-13T10:11:53.094+01:00An excellent list though I haven't read all of...An excellent list though I haven't read all of those books. To the 'The Big Walks' I added Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Cold Climbs and Classic Walks to my collection, all of course in the same format. It was you Conrad who recommended Nick Crane's 'Clear Waters Rising' to me which I thought a superb read. I must now read 'Two Degrees West'.<br /><br />In 2007 we met Ellen MacArthur near Loch Bharcasaig in Skye when we were returning from a walk to The Maidens and not long after we'd bought her book, 'Taking on the World'. She kindly signed a piece of paper we had in a sack adding 'go for it'!<br /><br />Hamish's Mountain Walk is, as you say, a classic and captures the period perfectly. I thought the photographs in later editions, stunning though they were, out of place for a walk done in 1974 but apparently the originals were lost. We have a first edition signed by Hamish when he spoke at a local bookshop in 1978. I re-read it once a year and I used to love reading his accounts of trips with his pupils in early editions of Climber and Rambler along with articles by Showell Styles.<br /><br />I enjoyed Dave Hewitt's book up to a point but found the deatil too much really.<br /><br />Since it is on our book shelf I would add 'Shackleton's 'Endurance'<br /><br />Thanks for this list Conrad.afootinthehillshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06670636358354420373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-57696394177638206532016-04-13T08:50:37.262+01:002016-04-13T08:50:37.262+01:00BC - Welcome - it's good to see there is at le...BC - Welcome - it's good to see there is at least one fellow reader out there ! Yes. I go along with the Tilman and John Muir. The common thread there is the ability to exist for long periods with almost no food. I have not read that particular Bonnington book, so it has gone onto my to-do list<br /><br />Having read all the Tilman seagoing books they have not stuck firmly in mind which is a sad failing for me with many books and not necessarily the fault of the authors. So, the books I listed are the ones that did leave me with a strong, lasting memory, and therefore it is a very personal selection. But I am certainly interested to hear from others of books which have genuinely inspired rather than being just a good rollicking or dramatic read. When I look at my list I realise that they are all accounts of events that lasted over a fair period of time rather than an account of a single, shorter event. There are others I could have included, Shackleton, Scott etc., but the ones I chose are on my shelf and the ones I feel sort of close to.Sir Hughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17908756392825206914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1365582190126322848.post-3381004052038929862016-04-12T21:14:22.879+01:002016-04-12T21:14:22.879+01:00That is a great reading list Conrad.
I gain most ...That is a great reading list Conrad.<br /> I gain most of my backpacking inspiration from N Crane's Clear Waters Rising.<br />I would add H W Tilman's sailing adventures on Mischief for the seat of your pants action, John Muir's books for wilderness philosophy, and Chris Bonington's Quest for Adventure for exactly that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com