The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in 1983, but the prize was not awarded that year as the judges felt that none of the entries were of sufficient merit. In 1984, a joint award was made to Doug Scott & Alex Macintyre for The Shishapangma Expedition and to Linda Gill for Living High.
The first individual winner came in 1985, Menlove. The Life of John Menlove Edwards by Jim Perrin. Menlove Edwards was a major figure in the development of Welsh climbing in the 1930’s and was a contemporary of Colin Kirkus and Jack Longland. Jim’s book gives a wonderful overview of climbing in Wales in the 1930’s & 40’s, but also tackles the great complexities and conflicts in Menlove’s life. A very talented psychiatrist, he was also homosexual at a time when this would have made life extremely difficult. Jim handles the story of Menlove’s life, his sad decline into mental illness, and his suicide at the age of only forty-eight in 1958, with commendable understanding and a deep sense for the loss of a highly intelligent man, a talented writer and someone well loved in the climbing community. In my opinion, this book is still one of the very best biographies in respect of the climbing world, to be published.
In 2005 Jim Perrin became the first author to win the BT Award for a second time. The Villain: The Life of Don Whillans was joint winner that year with Learning to Breath by Andy Cave. In this case, Jim took on the thankless task as so many people in the climbing community had a fixed image of how Don was. Jim describes in detail Don’s early life growing up in Salford and then becoming one of Britain’s finest ever mountaineers. However, the nature of Don’s character created many conflicts and difficulties in his life although he became something of a working-class hero to many climbers. His superb ascent of Annapurna’s South Face with Dougal Haston in 1970 brought Don great fame, but he was destined to only live until 1985 when he died aged only fifty-two. Jim handles the decline of Don’s life with skill and not a little compassion. Don was a complex man and there is a sense that the negative side of his character brought about his early death. Jim paints a very detailed picture of Welsh climbing in the period after the last war, and Don was a giant figure in that story.
Both Menlove and The Villain are required reading for anyone wishing to understand the development of climbing both in Snowdonia and further afield.
Steve Dean
Secretary of the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature