Released today (6 January), Anna Fleming's debut book Time on Rock: A Climber's Route into the Mountains, published by Canongate, is a story of a young woman's climbing apprenticeship with a socio-cultural and geological bent. Anna's ten-year climbing journey takes her from a dusty indoor wall in Liverpool to the gritstone outcrops, Welsh slate, Lake District rhyolite, Moray sandstone, Cuillin gabbro, Cairngorm granite and Kalymnian limestone. It's an adventurous coming-of-age tale in part, but Anna's scope in Time on Rock is also far broader.
Anna is a Welsh writer, Mountain Leader and PhD graduate based in Edinburgh. Natalie Berry shared a conversation with Anna about climbing, geology, culture, history and found out what her time on rock has taught her about the natural world and her own identity as a climber, woman and human being...
I accidentally tuned into an interview with her on R5 and my journey flew by ! I kept waiting for her to to tripped up by the stock media questions and every time she came back with a well considered answer I could pretty well relate to.