‘Round The World Travel By Rock
This wonderfully energetic and recently rediscovered memoir from 1928 by one of the fiercest and most driven pioneers of women’s rock climbing.
This republished memoir acts as a record of her determination both a journalist and a sportswoman. Through her adventures, she travels to the far corners of the world, accessing the inaccessible.
We’ve put together this list to give you a taste of these places visited by Pilley right from your armchair and have found some more female pioneers in climbing to explore too.
This list comprises books from all over the world:
- Llanberis, North Wales
- The Isle of Skye, Scotland
- Scafell Pike, The Lake District, Northern England
- The Italian Alps
- The French and Spanish Pyrenees
- Mt. Fuji, Japan
- The Himalayas, Nepal and India
- The Rockies, Canada
To view a list of all the books available, go here.
Happy reading!
– Charlotte at Mr. B’s
Llanberis, North Wales
The first stop of our climbing journey is to Llanberis, a world-famous climbing crag for its abandoned slate mines and sheer faces set to the backdrop of the misty Wesh hills.
The Dig, Cynan Jones
An unconventional and melancholic Welsh western. Bereaved farmer and ruthless badger baiter are set on a collision course as their fates intertwine. The Dig deftly tackles grief and the hardship of life as a farmer with unflinching accuracy and exquisite poetry. Characters emerge, rich and vivid, and tension runs through like an undercurrent. We can feel at all times the story building to dramatic conclusion.
Assembly of the Severed Heads, Hugh Lupton
This retelling of the ancient Welsh book of myths, the Mabinogion, encapsulates the magic and power of spoken-word storytelling. We follow the stories told by a bard on his deathbed, as he narrates all the tales he knows to a young monk, after conflict in the North washes him to more southern Welsh shores.
Sugar and Slate, Charlotte Williams
This memoir is an exploration into the Welsh identity, intertwines William’s Caribbean heritage with her childhood in a small Welsh town. It wonderfully dives into the history of Wales from a black perspective, with powerful and lyrical language revealing offering a new insight.
The Isle of Skye, Scotland
Next, is up north to the more remote Isle of Skye, with well explored rocks, for which climbers visit all over the world. However, beware the changing weather…
To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf’s ‘stream of consciousness’ classic explores the passing of time and the subjectivity of memory over several summers. Each year, the Ramsay family (and their friends) return to an idyllic holiday home on the Isle of Skye, but the outbreak of World War I has far reaching effects on them all.
The Outrun, Amy Liptrot
This is a book about seeking redemption. At the age of thirty, Amy Liptrot finds herself washed up back home on Orkney. Standing unstable on the island, she tries to come to terms with the addiction that has swallowed the last decade of her life. As she spends her mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, her days tracking Orkney’s wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy discovers how the wild can restore life and renew hope.
Where the World Ends, Geraldine McCaughrean
Far, far off the coast of Scotland, Quill and his friends are left every year on a remote island to hunt birds, before being collected and whisked back to the comforts of home. However, this year, the boat never comes to bring them back… This is a wild and wind-swept story about survival and friendship set on the stormy Scottish isles.
Scafell Pike, The Lake District, Northern England
Our final destination in the UK is the hard and resistant rock of the Lake District, known for its beautiful scenery and unforgiving rock faces.
Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
The first of a few classics on our list… Swallows and Amazons is a story held dear to many young hearts. It captures the magic of the Lake District in conjunction with the innocence and adventure of childhood, making it a perfect way to visit (or revisit) this location.
Wild Fell, Lee Schofield
Wild Fell captures the hard work, love of land and pioneering conservation work vital to protecting the natural world. Lee works for RSPB, managing farms that find the balance between honouring hundreds of years of farming heritage, livestock management, wildlife protection, ecotourism and rewilding efforts. It’s a positive and exciting story of a landscape that is so iconic to British landscape.
Time on Rock, Anna Fleming
Time on Rock is a dual journey of Anna rediscovering her sense of self as she learns traditional rock climbing and discovering climbing as a profound new way for her to connect to the world through the geological and cultural context of a region.
The Italian Alps
Onto the continent, we have the beautiful Italian Alps and Dolomites, inspiring modern legends, like the Misty Mountains. The climbing here is world-class with towering climbs, taking multiple days to summit.
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
A classic that needs no introduction, the famous Lord of the Rings, was inspired by the mountains of Italy. The Misty mountains, as read on page and seen on screen were inspired specifically by the Italian Dolomites, but we were too excited not to include this in the list (geography isn’t our strong point…)!
Soul of the Border, Matteo Righetto
Taking place at the end of the 19th Century, this book follows a tobacco farmer’s annual struggle, giving up a proportion of his crop to the authorities. He resorts to dangerously hiding his crop and smuggling it across the mountains to Austria and Germany, leaving his daughter at home. So, when one year he doesn’t return, she takes it upon herself to bring him home. This gentle and meandering novel escapes through the mountains, with a sinister darkness anchoring the characters back to a harsh reality.
The Land of Milk and Honey, Zhang
In a dystopian future, where most of the world starves and society falls apart, this book follows a young chef who takes on a new role working in a mountain retreat. Working for an elusive millionaire, she is employed to help seduce dinner party guests and their wallets. The chef realises she is on the edge of ambiguous scientific experiments and doomsday planning. Against this backdrop, she finds herself absorbed by new flavours, the luxury of food choices and her own sexual desire.
The French and Spanish Pyrenees
Aligning the border of France and Spain, the slopes of the Pyrenees are an outdoor lover’s heaven: from climbing (obviously…) to hiking, kayaking and camping. When Pilley first headed here, it was unexplored, and she played a key role in discovering the routes over the mountains.
When I Sing, Mountains Dance, Irene Sola
Translated from Catalan this is a poetic novel set in the Pyrenees that blends the voices of humans, ghosts, animals and nature. It tells the story of a family in the house of Matavaques with interconnected tales of folklore and the land, exploring how these shape and influence one another. 🏔️
Iberia, Julian Sayarer
Iberia is Julian Sayarer’ s account of his impromptu journey across Portugal and Spain, from Lisbon towards Barcelona, undertaken during a pandemic on an old blue bicycle named Miles.
Finding himself in Lisbon amidst a pandemic, Julian Sayarer decides simply to ride. Through hazy landscapes and on baked roads, he pedals east. During long hours in the saddle, his thoughts traverse matters big and small – hopping from post-colonial culpability to the supremacy of an orange picked at the roadside. Across 900 miles of sun-drenched olive groves, vast mountainscapes, and dormant towns glimpsed through driving rain, Sayarer’ s journey is punctuated by fleeting, beautiful moments of human connection. Iberia is a celebration of a shared humanity and community found in a uniquely fragile time.
The Nightingale, Kirstin Hannah
An incredible story of two sisters separated in war torn France. This deeply compelling story of love, survival and sacrifice is told by the bravest of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime and an absolute favourite here at Mr. B’s!
Mt. Fuji, Japan
Heading even further afield, we go to a mountain so iconic that it appears in ancient and modern art: Mt. Fuji. Covered in trails and iconic climbs, this imposing feature acts as the backdrop to many of our favourites.
Across the Nightingale Floor, Lian Hearn
Set in ancient feudal Japan, this book encompasses warrior clans, secret alliances and battles to defend warrior’s honour, with a background of a seemingly doomed love story. This epic describes ancient Japan as very few have, interweaving the magic of the characters with that of the landscape.
House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng
Set in 1920s colonial Penang it follows Leslie Hamlyn’s interactions with writer W. Somerset Maugham, revealing personal and colonial buried secrets. This novel explores themes of memory, trauma and of colonial life addressing the impact of it on individual lives.
Cherry Ingram, Abe
Collingwood Ingram was a well-connected Edwardian horticulturalist who shared the Japanese passion for ‘Sakura’ (cherry blossom). He devoted many years to identifying, preserving and ultimately reintroducing traditional cherry tree varieties to Japan, after industrialisation and intensive cloning practices had wiped out some of their native species. In this book tells the story of this sacred flower through its history.
The Himalayas, Nepal and India
The Himalayas span the south of Asia, lining the border between Nepal and India with snowcapped giants. The extreme altitude makes for challenging climbing, with only the most experienced even daring to attempt the summits. These books represent both the social and physical challenges of this epic region.
Himalayas, John Keay
Himalaya is a region known for its harshness, but it has also served as a border to clashes of empires and cultures for centuries. This is the story of the last great wilderness, a place that has defined human history, and where today’s geopolitics are painted in stark colour.
Without Ever Reaching the Summit, Paulo Cognetti
This book revisits the location of Matthiessen’s classic “The Snow Leopard” on its 40th anniversary, tracing the path drawn by the great adventurer. Combining magnificently romantic language with an investigation into his own physical limits, Cognetti discusses ancient culture and modern ideals of nature, armed with a notebook and his own trusty copy of the beloved classic.
High, Fatland
A solo female traveller crosses borders on her way through the Himalayas. On her way through, she discusses culture and the nature of the region with the women she meets on the way. This beautifully written novel adds a political edge to the borders of the landscape, which explores so much more than just the terrain.
The Rockies, Canada
Across the pond, the Canadian Rockies are the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, with their sister mountains stretching all the way to the tip of Argentina. These mountains have stood the test of time, from being formed up to 80 million years ago. They represent the stoic and unflinching force of nature, as portrayed by the fiction on this list.
Greenwood, Michael Christie
This Mr. B’s classic takes place on a futuristic version of Vancouver Island, just off the coast of British Columbia where two young boys have survived a train crash. Structured like the rings of a tree, this novel follows the lives of these boys, and their impact on those around them.
A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
In 2011, a plastic bag washes up on a beach, containing a Hello Kitty lunchbox and inside are some letters, a diary of a young Japanese girl named Nao, and a watch. The beach is on an island off the coast of British Columbia and the bag is found by Ruth, a local writer, and namesake of author Ruth Ozeki. What follows as these two seemingly separate lives unfold is a beautiful rumination on isolation and belonging, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth.
The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
A Mr. B’s favourite author, Mandel writes another modern classic with the haunting and intriguing story of the exclusive Glass Hotel. Sinister figures and not-so-empty threats mark this novel as a must-read if you want an eerie, yet fascinating post-lockdown read that might hit a little close to home, but with a killer twist.
Other Female Climbers
Outside of the world of climbing in the 20’s, there are still fabulous and brave women pioneering the adventures into the outdoors today. These next few books act as reminders not only of these women’s achievements, but their perseverance within their sport and lives off the rock too.
Undreamed Shores, Frances Larson
Undreamed Shores is the collective biography of five women, providing extraordinary insight into the beginning of the era of women’s suffrage and the legacy of colonialism. Katherine Routledge, Maria Czaplicka, Winifred Blackman, Beatrice Blackwood and Barbara Freire-Marreco were some of the first women to study at university, and remain great and forgotten explorers of the early 1900’s.
Save Me from The Waves, Jessica Hepburn
A tale of true physical and mental endurance, Hepburn describes her journey in the Sea, Street, Summit challenge with steely determination against the backdrop of her deep heartbreak. This inspirational story covers miles of emotional and physical ground with some cracking music to act as the soundtrack.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this list as much as we have making it, so thanks again and happy reading!