UKC

Someone on the NWB Guide thread described it as "the most eagerly awaited guide ever", I don't think it is but possibly the most eagerly awaited of recent times. Any suggestions for any others? I'd say it was whichever guide followed the Jon de Mountjoy and Mike Mortimer(?) Pembroke guide as that was out of print for years without any possible alternative (no selected guide, on line topos etc). We also waited ages for a Peak and Yorks sport limestone guide until Rockfax's first Northen limestone. Recently people have been hanging out for Gogarth South but at least the various selected guides to N Wales partially fill that gap ( I think the 1990 CC guide is still available too).

In reply to Tyler:

The Lancashire rock reissue reached mythical status before it actually happened

In reply to wilkie14c:

Not really as there as there was an interim release... lets call it a bricklet (as some bits had moved to Over the Moors)

In reply to Tyler:

The next Leicestershire guide. Will it, won't it?

Only 25 years since the previous one and counting.

In reply to Tyler:


Jon de Montjoye? Not wishing to be pedantic or smart-arsed, it's just that he contributes a lot to these forums.

Mick

In reply to Michael Hood:

Its like a time paradox tale: we never know when the volume will arrive, exactly what will be in it or if the contents will still be there when we try to visit. Many people will want to go there but they just don't know that yet, nor can we predict when that will be or if they will be too late when they realise.

In reply to wilkie14c:


It was long awaited but I think copies of the old one were pretty easy to find so no one was really left high and dry.

In reply to Michael Hood:



Certainly sounds like a contender, I imagine if you live in the area it must be a right pain. Is there an online wiki?

In reply to Mick Ward:

And yet you do it so well

As 'Jon'. I'd have thought the more egregious error was getting Mike Harber's name completely wrong but, regardless, apologies to Jon (or should that be apologies to you? I'm never sure in these instances who is the injured party)

In reply to Tyler:

Avon and Somerset Crud! All those little esoteric crags and quarries south of Bristol.
Can't wait till that's out : )

In reply to Tyler:

No worries - people have misspelt my name all my life - I'm used to it! I even got introduced to someone as 'Doug', once!

But you're right, in leaving ten years between our guide and that of John Harwood and Dave Viggers, the CC provided a perfect opportunity for Alan James to fill. My theory is that no one else wanted to put in all that work only to have it panned by Jim Perrin!

In reply to Tyler:


that sums up lancashire climbers, always high and never dry

In reply to jon:

When written out in full your name sounds like really you should have been an 11th century Norman baron or something not a 21st century mountain guide.

Back in the 90s I remember all the Scottish "new" comprehensive guides from the SMC were very eagerly awaited. I think besides the little Kimber guide of winter routes, there hadn't been a comprehensive Ben Nevis guide for well over a decade until the one in maybe 95.

In reply to jon:

Ten years between editions doesn't seem too bad but at the time it seemed like an eternity!

I remember that review, even as a callow youth (as JP might have it!) it seemed particularly disingenuous. IIRC it was because you hadn't been sufficiently fulsome in your praise of one of his routes....

In reply to Tyler:


Well that wasn't his only gripe. Don't get me started...

In reply to jon:

I was actually trying to get you started!

In reply to petegunn:

Get down the Bristol Frome Valley sandstone while you wait. The long awaited frome valley guide is now out!

In reply to jon:


C'mon Jon, get started! Take us back to the golden age of the splenetic review.

If it's any consolation, these days Jim seems to preserve most of his ire for our fulsome leader Theresa.

Such company you've ended up in...

Mick

P.S. I remember a later contributor to a Pembroke guide wearily confiding as the publication date drew near, "Mick, some plonker will probably rip it to shreds." Sure enough some plonker did. Plus ca change, 'n all that.

In reply to Mick Ward:

Looking on the bright side Jon, at least you didn't write Holding the Heights, that really did get eviscerated.

In reply to Tyler:

By John Kirk, I seem to remember. When he was 14 John marched up to me outside Humphry's Barn (eek, have I spelled Humphry properly? Probably not!) Very aggressively he opened with, "Do you know what onomatopoeia means?" (Honest!) I tried to ease out of the situation with a playful "Woof!" But, let's face it, John was never going to be a sympathetic reviewer.

And then there was Jim on 'The Mountain Spirit'. As Harold Drasdo sagely mused many years later, "He probably regrets that now."

And didn't some American have a right go at 'The White Tower'? I loved 'The White Tower'! Was it, 'buttock-clenchingly awful' or something like that? I mean - 'buttock-clenchingly awful' - that's so bad it's good. Doubtless William McGonagall would agree.

Ah the travails of the literary life!

Mick

In reply to Mick Ward:

It was this fella. https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=45075

Holding the Heights would be a series of blog posts now wouldn't it?

In reply to flaneur:

I liked it - and yes, it would suit the blog format admirably.

Mick

In reply to Michael Hood:



Pffft, The last (and only) Guernsey guide was published in '86 (31 years ago)! New one is 'nearly ready' though