Admittedly the rankings fluctuate by the hour, but at 7.00pm on May 15, after slowly making its way up the charts since it was published six weeks ago, 'Fiva' reached No.2 in the Amazon rankings of mountaineering historical and biographical books.

Rave reviews keep pouring in prior to the Keswick Mountain Festival

Do reviews get better than this? Review on MyOutdoors.co.uk. See more 5-star reviews on Amazon.

What could be better in the run-up to Gordon's illustrated talk 'Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong' at The Keswick Mountain Festival at 6.00pm on Saturday May 19?

Further details.

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.

'***** Best climbing book of 21st Century so far'

'THE most gripping book I have ever read!' - 'Think Touching the Void with jokes!' - the rave reviews for FIVA have been pouring in.

In the last week FIVA has frequently been in the Top Ten Climbing and Mountaineering books on Amazon, and at one point reached #2.

Amazon reviews  All reviews since publication

Gordon's latest book, 'Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong' was published by Golden Arrow Books on March 29, 2012.

"What a brilliant and refreshing read! Some of our best epics are those early ones when everything is fresh and new, our ambitions great, our experience thin. Gordon has captured all of this in his wonderful little book, that once started you just can't put down." Sir Chris Bonington

"Absolutely superb and totally gripping from the first few pages until the end. What an adventure! I think it's a future classic." Richard Else, TV producer

More about the book — The FIVA web site and Press release

First reviews

"Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong, which hit the shelves yesterday, has already garnered significant praise from reviewers, whether they know about climbing or not; testament to Gordon's ability to write in an engaging and accessible way…. Every step of the terrifying, life-changing journey is chronicled in a thrilling and frank fashion."
Jonny Birkin, The Derby Telegraph, March 30, 2012

"Fiva, by Gordon Stainforth falls squarely into the ‘sticky book’ category - a book so adhesive that no matter how hard you try, you simply can’t put it down until you’ve finished it…. The pace is flat out from the very first page - a high octane read."
Gareth Hanson, Rock Climbing UK, March 30, 2012
Full review

"What a story! … As it becomes clear they have bitten off more than they can chew, the fear is palpable. Things get bad, and then they get worse. By a third of the way through the book, I was absorbed, finishing it in one sitting and worn out by the end. A rollicking adventure story."
Daniel Neilson, The Great Outdoors, May 2012 (published March 29, 2012)

Full reviews.

Fiva acclaim on the internet. The book has already been attracting considerable interest on the internet. For example, Mary McLean Farmer sent out this glowing accolade on Facebook:

'Just finished reading Gordon Stainforth's latest book, Fiva. Absolutely incredible story, very emotional and even though I know nothing about climbing I felt as if I was there. Do yourself a favour and get a copy.'

Gareth Hanson put this tweet on Twitter:

'Best book I've read in a long time… Fiva by Gordon Stainforth - Talk about epic!!!!'

And Steve Clark posted on UKClimbing forums:

'I was lucky enough to read a pre-publication copy ...it really should carry a warning with it - "do not have anything planned for the few days after you've started to read it", because once I started it, I couldn't put it down. It's totally enthralling.'

The Fiva book launch - Outside Hathersage Café on March 29.

Report

Another Kubrick story - here's a clip from a recently released interview Gordon gave about Kubrick's technical knowledge for an Italian documentary in about 1999, or even 2000, about a year before Kubrick died.

In July 2009, exactly 40 years after their epic close shave on Store Trolltind on 6-8 July 1969 in which they nearly lost their lives, Gordon and twin brother John returned to Romsdal in Norway. On the right Gordon can be seen on the summit of Nordre Trolltind on July 9, 2009, with the upper section of their 1969 route, the Fiva Route, in the centre of the picture. Larger image and further details.

On July 6 they returned to Brur Skar, the deep notch on the left hand skyline above the 5000 foot Trolltind Wall, the largest rock wall in Europe. The incredible view from Brur Skar, showing the bottom 3000 feet of the Fiva Route.

See further galleries of images. (There are eight separate galleries under 2009 > Romsdal.)

The story of Gordon and John's epic on the Fiva Route in 1969 is the subject of Gordon's next mountain book. Further details coming soon.

On Saturday July 4, 2009 Gordon and his old editing colleague Gill Macdonald (neé Smith) - part of The Shining editing team in 1980 - met Christiane Kubrick at the Childwickbury Arts Fair. The last time all three were together here at the Stable Block at Childwickbury Manor House was 29 years ago ...

Another picture of Christiane

The Lakes episode of Griff Rhys Jones' programme Mountain, in which Gordon featured, was repeated on 14 May 2008 on BBC2. Watch excerpt (10.9 MB - can take quite a while to download - at least a minute, depending on your system. Be patient!) By the way, the reason I took the film crew there was that this was the exact spot I took this image for my first book, Eyes to the Hills.

On March 1st 2008, Gordon interviewed Joe Simpson at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. First clip, Second clip. The audience response was such that organiser Matt Heason described it as 'the highlight of the festival. It went down a real treat with the sell-out audience when Gordon Stainforth weaved an enticing blend of film clips and insightful questions to festival patron Joe Simpson.' Gordon was also one of the judges (with Ian Parnell and Niall Grimes) of the best films in six categories.

In November 2007 Gordon introduced Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' to a packed house at the Ritz Cinema in Belper, giving a 55-minute presentation about his work editing the highly acclaimed music score.

Earlier in 2007 Gordon featured in two TV programmes: the BBC1 Griff Rhys Jones' series Mountain and the BBC2 series Balderdash & Piffle.

In February 2007, Gordon's gallery on UKClimbing.com, which attracts over six million visitors per month, was voted 'best gallery', out of over 1000 galleries, two weeks running.

— Site last updated May 17, 2012 —

ABOUT GORDON

Internationally acclaimed award-winning author and landscape photographer Gordon Stainforth is perhaps best known for his lavishly illustrated personal photo-essays on the British hills and mountains: Eyes to the Hills, Lakeland, The Cuillin, and The Peak: Past and Present; but in the course of his career he has also 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 is presently involved from day to day with book reviewing, lecturing and website design (using the latest CSS and PHP techniques - see GS Web Design), while concentrating on his main interest, philosophy.

Gordon's main project at present is a major book on philosophy which has been in preparation for thirteen years. The book has now (well, for about the last four years!) been divided in half, so that the first book will provide the (pure) philosophical basis for the second book. My biggest challenge is to write it for the intelligent layman, and to try and avoid the pitfalls of most modern academic philosophy, the standard of which has arguably declined in the last three or four decades.