Mountain Book Festival Looms

A bit more Kendal Mountain Film Festival information for you, with an emphasis on the Kendal Mountain Book Festival which kicks off, for its second year, on Saturday 12 November and runs for nine days until the following Sunday.

This year's opening theme is 'wilderness' and the opening event at Rheged on Sunday, The Wild Side, will bring together panellists with a collective history of involvement in, well, wild places really. Those taking part will include Robert Macfarlane (winner of Guardian First Book Award Mountains of the Mind ), Michael Brown (renowned American film-maker and explorer), Dick Balharry (Chair of John Muir Trust) and Jo Roberts (Director of Wilderness Foundation, London).

The panel will be chaired by Lord (Chris) Smith and will explore their personal experiences of wild places as well as discussing writers and cultural figures who've interpreted wilderness through their work.

Other events include a full day at Kendal Library exploring the Alfred Wainwright Legacy through new exhibitions and a panel discussion chaired by writer and broadcaster and Chair of the Wainwright Society, Eric Robson.

Whose Life is it Anyway will consider issues that arise when researching, writing and publishing biographies of well-known mountaineers, climbers and explorers. Chaired by Ed Douglas participants are Peter Gillman (author of award-winning The Wildest Dream on George Mallory) Bernadette Macdonald (President of Banff Centre for Mountain Studies, Canada and author of Call me in Kathmandu on Elizabeth Hawley), Julie Summers (author of Fearless on Everest on Sandy Irvine) and Jim Perrin (author of The Villain on Don Whillans).

In addition, Simon Yates and Stephen Venables will be talking about writers who've influenced them over the years, you can see Ed Douglas in conversation with Andy Cave about his highly-acclaimed autobiography Learning to Breathe and attend the launch of Jim Perrin's collected writings Climbers' Essays.

Full details at www.mountainfilm.co.uk