Guidebook Production Progress Update

Further to my previous post about the progress of the new edition of the Cheesewring & South East Cornwall guide, the latest is that all the page sections have been printed and the books are now being bound. I'm not sure how long the book binding will take, but I'm sure the new guide will be available very soon.

Helman Tor and Downderry Beach Feature in Boulder Britain

For quite some time I've been intending to put a review of Niall Grimes' outstanding Boulder Britain: The Essential Guide to British Bouldering on this blog. It's particularly relevant to South East Cornwall too, as Helman Tor and Downderry Beach are among the 180 venues which appear in this ambitious new guide. Boulder Britain is remarkable not only for its size – 448 pages of beautifully produced full colour – but its scope in being a selective guide to bouldering areas throughout the country.

While the coverage is by no means extensive for any particular area, accurate directions and a summary are given for a range of bouldering venues. A good selection of problems is included at each of the better crags. The book also helpfully directs the reader to sources of further information such as local bouldering guides and on-line topos. Although it is well designed and stuffed full of great photos, for me it is Grimes' humorous writing style that is the highlight of Boulder Britain. His frank, often highly amusing assessments of an area's qualities provide a perfect recommendation – or indeed condemnation – for the guidebook user to follow.

It is pleasing that Cornwall's bouldering gets such favourable coverage among Britain's more well-known areas and notable that this is due, in no small part, to some of the country's top boulderers. Mike Adams and Dan Varian both helped the author with the South West section generally, and Godrevy in particular, and seem to have a high regard for the region's merits.

I'm sure any boulderer or keen rock climber will find this book to be an invaluable travelling companion and it will no doubt help raise the profile of numerous under-rated bouldering spots throughout the country. It may also be of interest to mention that within a week of the pre-order copies of Boulder Britain becoming available (mid-December 2011) I was bumping into climbers out and about with it – a telling sign of how useful and much needed this guidebook is.

Boulder Britain: The Essential Guide to British Bouldering is published by Ape Index and is available from the usual outlets or via their website, www.apeindex.com, at a price of £25.00 – ISBN 978-0-9570578-0-7.

Guidebook Has Gone to Press

Throughout the past week we have been checking over the printers' proofs for the new edition of the Cheesewring & South East Cornwall guide and I'm happy to report that they've been approved and the book has now gone to the press. The estimate is that it will be completed in four to six weeks; however, we have good reason to hope the finished product may be with us sooner. I fully expect the guide will be in the shops sometime in September and, as it's being printed here in Cornwall, I'll be able to keep a good track of things and let everyone know how it's all going.

I've put together a short HD film of guidebook editor Toni Carver looking over the proofs. This also includes images of some of the page spreads and a handful of action shots of the area that appear in the book. So if you'd like a sneak preview of Cheesewring & South East Cornwall: A Climbers' Guide by Barnaby Carver & Sean Hawken check it out now on Vimeo or YouTube.

Production Progressing Well

Now that the deadline for adverts in the forthcoming Cheesewring & South East Cornwall guidebook has passed I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the businesses and individuals who have advertised. Your support for the new publication is much appreciated.

The book is complete and production is now progressing well so those of you who are waiting for the new edition of the guide can rest assured that it will be available soon. I will post more details of how things are going in the next week.