Swimming the Aonach Eagach: Tales of Hillwalking in Scotland

By Susan Jack Ebook £1.99 from Amazon

THIS IS A SHORT collection of anecdotes and musings about the nature of hillwalking in Scotland, which should resonate with every walker who has ever set foot on a mountain.

The themes may be familiar but the approach is certainly different. The 40 or so stories are spread through eight chapters and the whole book comes in at around 15,000 words; yet there is much to admire and enjoy, and you may be left wanting more.

The tone is light-hearted, the individual tales brief, the conversations quirky yet relevant.

The author covers the whole gamut of hill experiences; there's the good days and the bad, heatwaves and thigh-deep snow, mistakes and revelations, golden eagles and doggy tales.

There are accounts of those mountains that can set the knees trembling, and stories of gentle, hands-in-pockets strolls where boring is merely a state of mind.

Those hill-lovers suffering from withdrawal symptoms may find Swimming the Aonach Eagach a tonic during these days of lockdown, but there's also the risk that you will end up with itchy feet.

And the title? Well, that would be giving too much away. Suffice to say I was convinced by the explanation of 'swimming' along the Scottish mainland's most infamous ridge. Alan Rowan