GORDON STAINFORTH

LATEST NEWS

February 2012

Gordon's latest book, 'Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong' is being published by Golden Arrow Books on March 29, 2012. The book will be launched that evening (7.00 for 7.30pm) at Outside, Hathersage. Further details coming soon.

"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

Request for review copies. Please email Golden Arrow Books co uk

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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.

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Gordon's 1998 book 'The Peak: Past and Present' has a glowing accolade in the August issue of 'Climber' magazine by John Horscroft.

The timing is fortuitous because Gordon will shortly be making an announcement about two new publications.

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On Nov 27 2010, Gordon and Freda attended the South Wales Mountaineering Club 50th anniversary gala dinner at Cardiff City Hall. The guest speaker was renowned rock climber and mountaineer, Pat Littlejohn. On Sunday 28 Freda and Gordon walked up Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons in very cold conditions with Mike Voyce of the SWMC (left).

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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— Site last updated February 3, 2012 —

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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.