On Saturday 24 November, a huge six-page article on 'Fiva' appeared in the Norwegian Newspaper Romsdals Budstikke. It looks very fine indeed, except we can't understand a word! We hope to have an English translation in the next few days.

Download whole article (1.9 Mb pdf file).

Nov 2 - Fiva wins BEST BOOK OF MOUNTAIN & WILDERNESS LITERATURE at the Banff Mountain Festival.

Gordon Stainforth's Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong won the coveted Jon Whyte Award for the Best Book of Mountain and Wilderness Literature at the Banff Mountain Film & Book Festival in Canada against tough opposition among a particularly strong shortlist of five finalists.

The judges' citation described "the breathless teenage voice" of the narrator as "an unrelenting force, sweeping the reader ever higher … as events spiral out of control…. An evocative period piece, Fiva is human, innocent, and unflinchingly believable. This little, unassuming book stands among the classic tales of climbing 'epics.'"

The judges were:

Bruce Kirkby (Canada) - Traveler, adventurer, author of two bestselling books, and well-known outdoor columnist for Canadian Geographic, Explore Magazine and other journals.

Barbara Brownell (USA) - Former Editor-in-Chief for National Geographic Books and currently president of Rivanna Publishing Ventures.

Jim Perrin (UK) - prolific author of fourteen books, twice winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize, and twice winner of Banff Mountain Book Festival Awards. Fellow of the Welsh Academy and Honorary Fellow of Bangor University.

Gordon and his twin brother John (who played a major part in the Fiva epic in 1969) attended the Banff Mountain Festival for four days, and were given a wonderful time by their Canadian hosts.

Judges' full citation, and details of the 2012 finalists for the Banff Mountain Book Competition

Public reactions to the prize.

Click pictures to enlarge

July 6 - Joe Simpson gives Fiva the big thumbs up

Joe Simpson, author of best-selling 'Touching the Void', gives this great accolade to 'Fiva' on Twitter:

Joe Simpson ‏‪@TouchingTheVoid‬
FIVA by Gordon Stainforth - Wonderful, nostalgic, gripping, classic epic yarn with great humour deserves to win many many awards - read it :)

... and on July 20, Stephen Venables, mountaineer and author of 'Higher Than the Eagle Soars' etc., called it

the most intelligent disaster story to appear for years.

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Gordon on BBC Radio Derby, Monday 30 April

Gordon was interviewed by Andy Potter on BBC Radio Derby at 2.15-2.55pm on BBC Radio Derby.

Apart from discussing 'FIVA', Andy asked Gordon about his taste in reading and his previous careers in the film industry and as a landscape photographer. Click for archived complete interview.

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— Site last updated May 19, 2013 —

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ABOUT GORDON

Internationally acclaimed award-winning author and mountain photographer Gordon Stainforth is perhaps best known for his lavishly illustrated photo-essays on the British hills and mountains: Eyes to the Hills, Lakeland, The Cuillin, and The Peak: Past and Present, and for his gripping true life story Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong, which won the coveted Best Book of Mountain and Wilderness Literature at the Banff Mountain Book Festival in November 2012. In the course of his career, however, Gordon has been involved in a wide range of other creative pursuits - film and music editor (notably on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining), book and exhibition designer, and novelist (see Biography). He now works full-time as a writer. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his science-fiction novel, many years in the making, The Last Days of P-Ship, which is being published as an ebook in the summer.

Other projects in the pipeline include: a biography of Gordon's great uncle, George Stainforth, aviator extraordinary, who broke the world speed record in 1931; a book on his experiences of working in the film industry, and particularly with Stanley Kubrick; and a major work on philosophy designed to appeal to the intelligent layman.