Maria Coffey
As the Chair of the Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust I’m honored to welcome you to the 41st Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature.
41 years – it makes me feel a bit dizzy to say that. And to think back to those very first meetings, when family and close friends of Pete and Joe came together to find a way to celebrate them, to keep their memory alive, to create a legacy in their names. Since then, BT has inspired and encouraged mountain writers in all genres. It has helped to develop and raise the profile mountain literature. And it’s allowed us all to stay connected with Pete and Joe, and with each other, a strong thread through time. I know Pete and Joe would be very proud of how far BT has come, and all its potential for the future.
Before we get started on the important business of the evening, there are a number of people I wish to acknowledge and thank.
First, huge thanks to Mountain Equipment who sponsor this event through Kendal Mountain Festival and who from next year will also be directly sponsoring the BT prize.
It’s a huge honour and joy to have our award as part of the incredibly rich and diverse Kendal Mountain Festival. Thanks to Paul Scully, Jenny Rice, the KMF directors and everyone on the team for all you do for BT, and for the mountain and outdoor community.
My thanks to our patron Sir Chris Bonington and my fellow trustees – Martin Wragg, Paul Tasker, Chris Harle, Charlie Clarke, Kelyvn James, Matt Fry, as of today our newest trustee Helen Mort, and most especially Steve Dean and our administrator Janet Dean. Steve and Janet are the engine of BT, devoting huge amounts of time to it each year, and working closely with KMF to create this event. On that note, thanks to the Brewery Arts Centre technical staff here in the Malt Room with us this evening.
From personal experience I know how much work and commitment is involved in being a judgefor a book competition. I want to acknowledge and show our gratitude to our judges for this year’s prize. Joanne Croston couldn’t be here; Rehan Siddiqui and our Chair of Judges Paul Pritchard – himself a two times winner of this prize - please stand for a moment to accept our thanks.
All but two of our short-listed authors are with us tonight. Graham Zimmerman is at home with his five-week-old baby, and Deepa Balsavar couldn’t be here because of visa issues. But they are with us in spirit – and in Graham’s case he will be here on film. Our other authors: Bernadette McDonald, Kate Nicholson, Clive Oppenheimer, Nandini Purandare and David Smart, please stand and accept our congratulations.
For the past nine years, Stephen Venables, the esteemed author and mountaineer, took on the formidable task of interviewing the short-listed authors during this event. Live on this stage, and online during the pandemic, he conducted the interviews with professionalism, aplomb, and humour. We want to thank Stephen – our long-time friend - for all his work and commitment to the BT Award.
Stepping into Stephen’s shoes this year is Helen Mort. She’s well known to many of you as an award winning and incomparable writer and poet. Her memoir A Line Above the Sky was co-winner of the BT prize in 2022, and won the Grand Prize at the 2023 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. Helen is a professor of Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, and she has just returned from Banff where she is on the faculty of the Mountain WritersIntensive Program. She downplays this, but she is also a keen fell runner and rock climber.
And so, without further ado, I’d like to welcome Helen, and hand things over to her.
Maria Coffey, Kendal Mountain Festival, November 22, 2024.