'In this book there are words to love and words to hate but I promise you, none of them will be boring'
– Andy Kirkpatrick

In these three short video clips climber and award-winning author Andy Kirkpatrick tells us why his new book, Unknown Pleasures, is not your normal climbing narrative but a book that's always asking questions about life, death, relationships and all the bits in between.

About the book

Unknown Pleasures is Andy Kirkpatrick at his brilliant best.

One moment he is attempting a rare solo ascent of Norway's Troll Wall, the next he is surrounded by the TV circus while climbing Moonlight Buttress with the BBC's The One Show presenter Alex Jones. Yosemite's El Capitan is ever-present; he climbs it alone – strung out for weeks, and he climbs it with his thirteen-year-old daughter Ella – her first big wall.

His eye for observation and skilled wordcraft make for laugh-out-loud funny moments, while in more hard-hitting pieces he is unflinchingly honest about past and present love and relationships, and pulls no punches with an alternative perspective of our place in the world.