Meetings on the Edge. A High-Level Escape from Office Routine

Mackean, Mags

ISBN 10: 1903238803 / ISBN 13: 9781903238806

Edité par The In Pinn - Neil Wilson Publishing, Glasgow, 2008

A propos de cet article

8vo. original printed paper wraps, French flaps (trifling marks to fore-edge); pp. xvi, 198, with illustrations. A fine copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 037823

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Meetings on the Edge. A High-Level Escape from Office Routine
• Éditeur: The In Pinn - Neil Wilson Publishing, Glasgow
• Date de parution: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1903238803
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781903238806
• Reliure: Soft Cover
• Édition: First Edition.
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Women Travellers
  • Climbing Biographies

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

"Meetings On The Edge" is a travel memoir by a once-frustrated journalist for the BBC, who took the plunge and abandoned a ten year career to follow her dream to become a mountaineer. This book explores the impact of a solitary journey as well as unexpected encounters with fascinating people along the way. The different natural environments mirror the demands of an evolving quest. The many lessons of nature's classroom are against a background of adventure, discovery and considerable personal risk. Like all quests, the incidental insights and surprising events challenge the romantic idea of adventure. Stories from Alaska, the Pacific North West, the Himalaya and New Zealand's Southern Alps are interwoven into the central adventure of traversing the French and Spanish Pyrenees alone.Tales to highlight include encountering a naked and all too aroused flasher far off the beaten track, a colourful relationship with Nepal's most famous civilian, a film star, two weeks after the royal massacre, and summiting Denali, North America's highest peak, while the expedition dwindled from 9 to just 4 due to life-threatening illness and mishap. But it was after a chance meeting with a wise Maori man and a solitary encounter with a 2000 year old Kauri tree in an ancient forest, that the author experiences an epiphany: that a restless, goal-driven life is not the most fulfilling. This book ends in the foothills of the Pyrenees, where the freedom she has experienced is in marked contrast to the security-conscious existence of those living there. The electric gates, fencing and hedgerows project a community in fear of those very open spaces which had broadened her horizons.

À propos de l?auteur

Mags MacKean was born and raised at sea level, the youngest of four daughters. A love of mountains struck some years later. Her spartan schooling near the wild Scottish Highlands exposed her to the freedom of the outdoors, not so much to scale its heights, but for the cover it provided for illicit smoking and swilling a heady mix of rum and irn-bru. A chance trip to Kilimanjaro changed everything. As a radio and TV news reporter, Mags uprooted from London and moved to Glasgow for the mountains. After three generously sanctioned career breaks, she finally obeyed her restless calling and quit her job in 2005. She has since roamed in some of the world's remotest mountain areas, often alone and needing all her resources during some surprise adventures. Mags spent much of last year working with Tibetan refugees in north India while researching for her next book, a novel about their life in exile. She has attended the prestigious Banff Mountain Writing Programme.