Boardman Tasker Award 2014 Shortlist
- Monday 15th September 2014
Below is the shortlist for this year's Boardman Tasker Awards. There has been an unusually high number of books entered for this year’s award; the judges have had more than forty titles to consider before compiling a shortlist.
This year’s judges Audrey Salkeld (Chair), Chris Harle and Robin Campbell, have selected the following books for this year’s shortlist:
Tears of the Dawn
by Jules Lines by Shelterstone 288 pages £20-00 - ISBN 978-0-9576817-0-5
Tells of his three decades of extreme climbing, much of it solo. A riveting read and often very scary.
My Father, Frank, Unresting Spirit of Everest
by Tony Smythe by Vertebrate Publishing 356 pages £20-00 - ISBN 9781898573876
Frank was an absent father when Tony and his brothers were growing up. This is an attempt, reluctantly taken up at first, to get to know who this man was, who created unique success out of multiple disadvantages, skewed relationships and failures.
In Search of Peaks, Passes & Glaciers, Irish Alpine Pioneers
by Frank Nugent by The Collins Press 320 pages £26-99 - ISBN 978-1-84889-178-4
Teases out the impressive Irish contribution to early Alpine history with much new or little-known material.
Nanga Parbat 1970, Tragedy and Controversy
by Richard Sale & Jochen Hemmleb by Carreg Ltd 208 pages £25-00 - ISBN 978-0-9563163-2-5
Useful round-up of all the accusations, rebuttals and new evidence that have followed the ill-fated first ascent of the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat by the brothers Reinhold and Gunther Messner. Gunther disappeared during the subsequent traverse and descent.
Law Unto Himself
by Michael Law by Open Spaces Publishing 196 pages £9-95 - ISBN 978-0-9875264-1-0
Compelling autobiography of Australian 'New Wave' rock climber is entertaining in its own right, as well as providing comprehensive history of this period of Aussie activity.
Hanging On, A Life Inside British Climbing’s Golden Age
by Martin Boysen by Vertebrate Publishing 265 pages £20-00 - ISBN 9781910240007
Thoughtful reflections over a 55-year climbing career which took him from Harrison's Rocks to the world's greater ranges.
About the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust
The trust was established to promote literature by providing an annual award to authors of literary works, the central theme of which is concerned with mountains.
The prize of £3,000 commemorates the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker and is given to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.
On 17 May 1982 Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were last seen on Mount Everest attempting to traverse The Pinnacles on the unclimbed North East Ridge at around 8250 metres. Their deaths marked the end of a remarkable era in British mountaineering.
Peter and Joe left two legacies. One was their great endeavour, their climbs on high peaks with bold, lightweight innovative methods which included Dunagiri, Changabang, Kongur, Everest and Kangchenjunga. The second and more lasting achievement were the books they wrote and left behind.
This literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature set up by family and friends in 1983.