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V Publishing Titles Shortlisted For Boardman Tasker Award

Sheffield-based publisher has two titles shortlisted for this year's prestigious mountain literature award.

Two titles from Verterbrate Publishing have been shortlisted for the prestigious 2016 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

The two nominated titles are Wild Country by Mark Vallance and The Bond by Simon McCartney.

To give you some background, the Boardman Tasker (BT) prize was founded to commemorate Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker – two mountaineers who perished on Everest in 1982 and left behind a legacy of classic mountain literature

The Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust was set up in 1983 and has since recognised the top mountain literature with an annual prize.

Strong lineup for this year’s competition

Interest in this year’s remained as great as ever with the competition resulting in 35 books being submitted, and last week the judges revealed their shortlist of five.

Commenting on the announcement, Jon Barton Managing Director of Vertebrate Publishing said: ‘we are thrilled to have been shortlisted for this year’s BT award. This internationally acclaimed award is much sought after and to have two of our books in the running this year is fantastic, it reflects the passion and dedication of our authors and the entire Vertebrate Publishing team’.

Find out more about the two books below.

Wild Country – Mark Vallance

In early 1978, an extraordinary new invention for rock climbers was featured on the BBC television science show Tomorrow’s World. It was called a ‘Friend’ and it not only made the sport safer, it helped push the limits of what was possible. The company that made them was called Wild Country, the brainchild of Mark Vallance. Within six months Vallance was selling Friends in sixteen countries. Wild Country would go on to develop much of the gear that transformed climbing in the 1980s and the story is told by Mark Vallance in this latest book.

‘This is one of the best books by a mountaineer/climber I have read over the years.’ (5 stars)

‘A must have book and a must read experience.’ (5 stars)

The Bond – Simon McCartney

‘Man, the only – only – good thing about that climb was that you were tied on to the other end of the rope.’

Simon McCartney was a cocky young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meeting in Chamonix in 1977 with Californian Stonemaster Jack Roberts that would dramatically change both their lives – and almost end Simon’s. The whole story is told by Simon McCartney in his latest book.

‘Powerful Portrayal.’ (5 stars)

‘It’s about time this story was told.’ (5 stars)