UKH

A bold and talented climber responsible for some great North Wales routes (and a few horrors), and a writer of hard, stripped-back climbing prose, John Menlove Edwards was also deeply troubled. What makes Jim Perrin's biography a classic, says Ronald Turnbull, are the extended extracts from Menlove's own writing.   

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In reply to UKC/UKH Articles: It's some time since I read the book but I do remember the extremely poignant poems he wrote after his brief relationship with a well known climber/ mountaineer of the day. His later life was particularly tragic.

In reply to UKC/UKH Articles:

Ed Drummond's 'review' of the book (in A Dream of White Horses) is also essential reading as another take on Perrin's analysis. You don't read many reviews like that!

In reply to UKC/UKH Articles:

Some great writing about some great writing.

Thanks!

In reply to UKC/UKH Articles:

Some articles on UKC this week… Thank you

In reply to Michael Gordon:

JimLove Menwords, utterly classic!

In reply to Pedro50:

Also a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

In reply to alan moore:

I think the kettle has a few more skeletons in his closet than just outing JME.

In reply to Pedro50:

Maybe so. But no proper biography of Edwards could have failed to mention his sexuality. Back then Jim was fascinated by biography. If I remember correctly he did his PhD about it. He simply had to deal with Edwards' sexuality. 

However my understanding is that he held back publication for several years through a desire to avoid pain to some elderly people. And I gather that the book was only published after they'd passed away. I believe much the same thing happened with 'The Villain'. 

While Jim is undoubtedly a colourful character, he can also show great tenderness and compassion. He's never capitalised on this in any way and it almost always gets forgotten. 

As some dude put it:

'The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones...'

Mick