Jim Perrin (born 30 March 1947), is an English rock climber and travel writer.

Biography

Jim Perrin was born Ernest James Perrin in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, to a family of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

descent. His father played rugby league for

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

in the late 1930s. As a writer, Perrin has made regular contributions on travel,

mountaineering Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...

, literature, art, and the environment to a number of newspapers and climbing magazines, and continues to do so as a country diarist for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and a columnist in '' The Great Outdoors'' magazine. As a climber, he has developed many new routes, particularly on the

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

gritstone outcrops, in

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

and on the sea cliffs of

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

, as well as making solo ascents of a number of difficult established routes, and also free ascents of previously aid-assisted climbs in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. For many years he has contributed mountaineering obituaries for ''The Guardian'' (for example, on Patrick Monkhouse, Lord Hunt, Sir Jack Longland, Sir

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

, Brede Arkless, John Streetly, David Cox, Kevin FitzGerald, Robin Hodgkin, and others), and also for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. He also wrote many essays for ''The Daily Telegraph'' travel supplement, most of which are collected in ''Travels with the Flea''.

Awards

Perrin has twice won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, first for ''Menlove'' (1985), his biography of John Menlove Edwards, and again as joint winner (alongside Andy Cave's ''Learning to Breathe'') for ''The Villain'' (2005), a biography of Don Whillans.List of previous Boardman Tasker prize winners
Several of his other books have been shortlisted for this award. He has won the Mountaineering History Prize at Banff Mountain Book Festival for ''The Villain'' (2005), and the Mountaineering Literature Prize for ''The Climbing Essays'' (2006), which was also short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year Award. His ''Shipton and Tilman: The Great Decade of Himalayan Mountaineering'' won the Kekoo Naoroji Prize for Himalayan Literature in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy,The Welsh Academy
/ref> an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University.

Bibliography

Below is a partial list of books by Perrin listed by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

as in print (on 7 November 2016): * ''Mirrors in the Cliffs'' (ed.) (1983), Diadem * ''H.W. Tilman: The Seven Mountain-Travel Books'' (1985), Diadem, edited and introduced * ''Eric Shipton: The Six Mountain-Travel Books'' (1985), Diadem, edited and introduced * ''Spirits of Place'' (1997), Gomer Press * ''Visions of Snowdonia'' (1997), BBC Publications * ''River Map'' (2001, 2nd edition 2002), Gomer Press * ''Travels with the Flea... and Other Eccentric Journeys'' (2001, second edition 2002), Neil Wilson Publishing * ''The Villain: The Life of Don Whillans'' (2005), Hutchinson * ''The Climbing Essays'' (2006), Neil Wilson Publishing * ''West: A Journey through the Landscapes of Loss'' (2010), Atlantic Books * ''Snowdon: The Story of a Welsh Mountain'' (2012), Gomer Press * ''Shipton and Tilman: The Great Decade of Himalayan Exploration'' (2013), Hutchinson * ''A Snow Goose, and other utopian fictions'' (2013), Cinnamon Press * ''A William Condry Reader'' (ed.) (2015), Gomer Press * ''The Hills of Wales'' (2016), Gomer Press The following are out of print: * ''Menlove: Life of John Menlove Edwards'' (1985), Gollancz (second edition, 1993, Ernest Press) * ''On and Off the Rocks'' (1986), Gollancz * ''Yes, To Dance '' (1990), Oxford Illustrated Press

References

External links

Jim Perrin at The Guardian

Interview by David Roberts

Jac's Sisters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Jim 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from Manchester British rock climbers English travel writers Boardman Tasker Prize winners English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers English non-fiction outdoors writers Climbing and mountaineering writers