| Gwen Moffat (1961) |
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| Author: | Gwen Moffat |
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Essential
Gist: | Pioneering post-war female climbing bum writes matter-of-factly about extraordinarily late 40s/50s Bohemian lifestyle (army desertion, single motherhood, promiscuous climbing etc). | | Description: | Moffat struck a singular blow for womens' equality in climbing, proving that female crag rats could be every bit as scummy in their habits as men. Hitching everywhere, roughing it in damp Welsh cottages, dossing under hedges, nicking stuff, even deserting from the army - anything to avoid holding down a proper job in order to devote as much time as possible to feeding her climbing habit. Nothing new in that you might think, but this was in 1947, not 1974; Moffat was a Beatnik before the term was invented. After experimenting living communally with a bunch of Bohemian proto-hippies in mid-Wales and Cornwall, and indulging in all sorts of nefarious and dubiously legal practices, she became an early fixture of the North Wales climbing scene in the late 40s and early 50s, climbing the test-pieces of the day and generally hanging out with the boys. More adventures followed, involving promiscuity, single motherhood, rampant Alpinism, a spell in more damp accommodation in Skye, and writing fiction for BBC Radio before she became the first woman to qualify as a British Mountain Guide, years before the likes of Brede Arkless and others would begin to redress the gender inequality in the profession. Even now, four decades after she qualified, there are only four fully accredited women guides, a measure of how far ahead of her time Moffat was. Her seminal autobiography Space Below My Feet, is regarded as a classic, and further volumes recounting Moffat's remarkable life have followed. Since the late 60s Moffat has carved a niche as a thriller writer with a kind of Agatha Christie/Raymond Shandler-crossover style and her books are often to be found in large print sections of municipal libraries. Their heroine, the climbing detective 'Ms Pink', has now starred in numerous books including the memorably titled Die like a Dog, and Deviant Death. Utterly barmy, but interesting. | | Publisher: | Hodder & Stoughton. Second hand £15-30. Paperbacks £3-5. | | Excerpt: | 'It started when, as an army driver - whose wartime dream had always been to have become a guerrilla - I met a conscientious objector on sun-drenched afternoon in Merioneth. I was driving slowly down the side of the Mawddach estuary, quite alone and idly dreaming, when I saw a man ahead. He was big and hard and golden in the sunlight: a Greek god in bell-bottom trousers. I stopped and offered him a lift... He launched into a description of an astonishing world beyond my experience, a free and splendid world of mountains and mountain climbing, and hidden lonely cottages he shared with friends, My imagination pictured supermen, and lovely casual girls subject to no ordinary rules or conventions, wandering gaily in the country, laughing, working and making love - and having a multitude of shocking adventures.' |
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