Who's Who In British Climbing? Review

Who's Who In British Climbing  - by Colin Wells. Price - £20.00 www.theclimbingcompany.net

What is it? Selected mini-biographies of nearly 700 British climbers - many are dead, some are still alive! It says here. Paperback with 575 pages and weighing in at a classy 1200 grammes, so you won't be taking it along on your ultra-lightweight backpacking expeditions or alpine-style peak bagging trips...

This is a very dangerous book - on the face of it, a series of mini-biographies of almost 700 British climbers past and present, promises to be horrifically dull. Unfortunately Colin Wells has a real gift for dry, sharply written pen pictures of climbers, dead and alive, which means that what starts as a quick delve into a particular star name - Simpson or Bonington for example -  has a disturing tendency to morph into an extended reading session, mostly about climbers you may only have heard of on a peripheral basis, and before long several hours have leaked out of your life never to return.

If you're a climber yourself or a lover of mountaineering literature and history with its inter-crossing cast of names, WWIBC is a brilliant way of looking up precised life and career histories, but essentially it's an ideal way of killing idle moments - bathroom moments? - with bite-sized biographical chunkettes.

Aleister Crowley, for example, obviously appealed to Wells, meriting four whole pages of life history. But the appeal of the book is you rcan ead about his bizarre life and climbing, then flick back a few pages and swat up on Chris Bonington. Or Whillans. Or Brown or, well, pretty much any British climber you've heard of and many you haven't along with suggestions for further reading where appropriate.

And the amount of research that must have gone into the book is astonishing. God only knows where Wells got all his information from, but it's impressively comprehensive.

In a world where there were climbing pub quizes every Wednesday night, WWIBC would be essential reading and it'd make an excellent, entertaining casual time waster and reference for the climber in your life. One for the Christmas stocking we reckon.

More details and online ordering at www.theclimbingcompany.net