Join adventurers on trip to edges of the world
IT’S bad news, good news week and definitely in that order. Regular readers, especially those who have, over the last 10 years, made the journey from across the circulation area to the Laughing Badger Gallery and Cellar Bar, from Rochdale to Accrington and from Stockport to Glossop, may have picked up that we have sold up... boooo!
But don’t despair, Joanie and I have teamed up with Howard Town brewery in Old Glossop and all workshops, wildlife discussions and musical events have been transferred there. You couldn’t make it up. We’re now in a brewery... hurrah!
Yes, I know, I’ve fallen in the proverbial ‘muck cart’ and come out smelling of, well, hops.
It’s a marriage made in a mash-tun and already, after only four weeks, there’s a real buzz about the place. With this in mind you are all invited to the launch night of a wonderful new kids book, Fantastic Female Adventurers, illustrated by
Fantastic Female Adventurers
the uber-talented Chellie Carroll of Glossop. Chellie has appeared in my columns many times over the years and she is delighted that the event will be opened by the equally talented wilderness photographer, John Beatty, who lives just over the Snake Pass from the brewery in Bamford.
Be great to see you on Thursday, December 19, from 6pm at the Howard Town Brewery, Hope Street, Old Glossop SK13 7SS, could be a bit of a do, with John and Chellie speaking, music and food.
Chellie, a climbing instructor herself, was particularly delighted to find that her climbing heroine, Gwen Moffatt, is featured in the book.
Gwen, now 95,was the pathfinder for all female climbers in the forties and fifties, putting up some of the great routes on rock, including at the nearby Laddow Rocks, Crowden, coincidentally the place I first met John Beatty 40 years ago when I lived at Crowden and he worked at the Outdoor Pursuit Centre. John is now an internationally renowned wilderness photographer and very well known for his audio-visual spectaculars, including ‘Touch The Earth’ which sold out the Buxton Opera House.
John, an expert climber is also a great fan of Gwen.
She began climbing just after the war, leaving the Army to live a transient life in hills, cliffs and mountains of Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and far beyond. She became the first British female guide.
She lived on a boat with her daughter, travelled and climbed widely and latterly moved to the Lake District to continue her extremely successful writing career. As a climber, Gwen broke ground, defying the conventions of the 1940s and 50s, paving the way for other female climbers to be different.
In the book you can follow Gwen and the others on their incredible journeys around the globe. Ski to the North
Pole with Ann Daniels while watching out for polar bears. Feel the air beneath your feet as you climb high on a cliff face with Gwen Moffat.
Experience the thrill of racing down rocky Himalayan trails with champion runner Mira Rai. Sail the oceans with Ellen MacArthur, the girl who saved up her lunch money to buy her first boat.
You’ll even fly into space with Britain’s first astronaut, Helen
Sharman. And join Lily on other awesome adventures with Anna McNuff, Sarah Outen, Misba Khan and more – taking you from Everest to the South Pole and all the places in between.
Fantastic Female Adventurers will leave you thinking: I can do that, too!