Series title:
Hanging On is the autobiography of Martin Boysen, one of Britain's most gifted climbers. He made a huge contribution to British climbing, including discovering Gogarth in the 1960s. He was one of Britain's leading mountaineers, climbing with Chris Bonington on Annapurna and Everest. This is an insider's account of British climbing's golden age.
The start of a love affair: 'I kicked off my shoes and prepared to climb in stocking feet, aware of an enormous sense of occasion as I laid hands on the rock and stepped up on the first rounded hold. It was not a hard climb but that was unimportant. I felt instinctively at home and at the finish experienced such a surge of happy elation that I knew then I was committed to climbing.' Martin Boysen's passion for crags and mountains springs from his deep love of nature and a strong sense of adventure. From his early days on rock as a Kent schoolboy after the war, he was soon among the most gifted climbers of his or any generation, famed for his silky technique. Boysen made a huge contribution to British rock climbing, especially in North Wales; he discovered Gogarth in the 1960s and climbed some of the best new routes of his era: Nexus on Dinas Mot, The Skull on Cyrn Las and the magisterial Capital Punishment on Ogwen's Suicide Wall. For more than two decades, Boysen was also one of Britain's leading mountaineers. A crucial member of Sir Chris Bonington's team that climbed the South Face of Annapurna in 1970, Boysen was also part of Bonington's second summit team on the South West face of Everest. In 1976 he made the first ascent of Trango Tower with Joe Brown. Along the way, Boysen climbed with some of the most important figures in the history of the sport, not just stars like Bonington and Brown, but those who make climbing so rich and intriguing, like Nea Morin and the brilliant but doomed Gary Hemming. He joined Hamish MacInnes hunting gold in Ecuador, doubled for Clint Eastwood on the North Face of the Eiger and worked on director Fred Zinnemann's last movie. Wry, laconic and self-deprecating, Martin Boysen's Hanging On is an insider's account of British climbing's golden age.
Martin Boysen started climbing on the sandstone outcrops of Sussex over 55 years ago and rapidly became one of Britain’s outstanding rock climbers. He extended his climbing to the Alps and Greater Ranges, taking part in several important Himalayan climbs, including the first ascent of the South Face of Annapurna in 1970. In the long course of his climbing life he has met and made friends with many of the leading climbers of his generation, including Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Pete Crew, Baz Ingle, Nick Estcourt, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington. He studied Botany at Manchester University where he met his wife Maggie, and worked for many years as a teacher – a career interrupted frequently by expeditions. He still lives near Manchester and maintains his love of climbing and nature. He has one daughter, Kate, married to JC, and he greatly enjoys trying to keep up with his grandchildren Poppy and Arne as they scamper over the rocks.
From Friday 1 April 2022, we offer 25% off to all newsletter subscribers. Simply sign up to our newsletter here to receive your discount code. If you're already a subscriber, we'll remind you of the code every time we send out a newsletter.
In addition, we offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders, along with options to upgrade the delivery service at checkout.
Postage costs are dependent on order weight (book/s weight plus packing materials) and are calculated automatically upon checkout, before payment is taken. Full details of our delivery and returns information can be found here.
We offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders: orders are sent Royal Mail Second Class as standard and should arrive within two to three working days. The option to upgrade UK shipping to Royal Mail 24 Next Day Delivery is available at checkout.
International orders are sent by Royal Mail International Tracked. Deliveries can take between a few days and a couple of weeks to arrive, depending on the delivery location. Please contact us if your country is not listed.
Update: September 2022. Most orders received through the Vertebrate Publishing Adventure Books website are dispatched from Gardners in Eastbourne, UK; some orders (such as signed copies of pre-orders, or limited stock items) are sent from our office in Sheffield, UK. If your order is for multiple items, you may receive more than one package, though we try to avoid this (if applicable, you would only be charged once for shipping). Orders received before 11 a.m. are dispatched the same day; orders received after 11 a.m. are usually dispatched the following business day. You will be sent a notification email when your order has been dispatched. If we are temporarily out of stock of a title we will advise by email.
Gift card purchases are delivered electronically – we do not dispatch physical gift cards. Full details are provided with gift card purchases.
Coming soon! Ebooks are fulfilled securely by our partner Glassboxx using their app. For more details about how to access your ebook, please refer to the information in your order confirmation.
Payment is made safely and securely using Shopify, which incorporates the world's leading payment gateways, including Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also check out with PayPal. All payments are handled directly by these payment gateways and Vertebrate Publishing Adventure Books does not process or store any cardholder details on the Adventure Books website.
We will happily refund or exchange any item that is returned to us in an unused, as new condition. If you want to make a return, contact us with your details. Once we've received the item(s), we will credit your account. If the item is faulty or damaged or we have sent the incorrect item we will refund postage.
If you're returning something because it's not suitable, you'll need to pay the postage costs to return it to us. We process most returns the day they arrive with us, and certainly within seven working days. Goods must be returned to us within 21 days.