Mountaineering Heroism and Celebrity
I have a longstanding interest in the cultural and political meanings of heroism within the evolution of the British mountaineer. My doctoral research charted the development of the British mountaineer as hero, from the age of empire to the age of the individual. It investigated the constructions and varied meanings of heroism, heroics, renown and celebrity of the mountaineer. It is a story of the evolution of modern gendered identities that cannot be told without recourse to social and cultural representations, the imagination of nation and empire, and the identities of race, class and social status.
Several essays have already been published from the doctoral thesis, on the totemic relationship of Everest conquerors to the British nation (Anthropological Notebooks, 2006), an article in Media, Culture and Society (2007) on the media reception of mountaineer and mother Alison Hargreaves; a chapter exploring the heroic leadership and Englishness of John Hunt and Chris Bonington in a book on Heroines and Heroes (2008), and an article entitled 'Reality TV on the rockface - climbing the Old Man of Hoy', Sport in History (2007), which detailed the early evolution of climbing on British TV and, more broadly, the celebrification of post-war British climbers.
Since conferment of my doctorate I have continued to plough this furrow. In September 2013 I edited a special issue of Sport in History on 'Gender and climbing histories'. This featured new research on climbing cultures from doctoral researchers and recent UK-based post-doctoral researchers following two successful panels convened at the British Society of Sport History annual conference. More recently, I wrote an article on the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs for a special issue on 'Women in Mountaineering' published in International Journal of the History of Sport, on the involvement of women climbers in the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs. A follow-up piece, reprising the work I started on Alison Hargreaves, has returned to the questions of gender and parenthood and has examined the ascent of the British celebrity adventurer and broadcaster Ben Fogle, who summited Everest in 2018, whose memoir Up: My Life's Journey to the Top of Everest (William Collins, 2018) speaks of the entangled emotional connections to family life and Everest dreams.
A new phase of this research continues into 2022 following the award with Dr Jonathan Westaway (University of Central Lancashire, PI) of an AHRC Network Award grant for a project called Other Everests: Commemoration, Memory and Meaning and the British Everest Expedition Centenaries, 2021-2024. This will produce events that bring together international scholars to examine the commemorative and interpretive activities surrounding the first British Everest Expedition centenaries as a means to challenge persistent colonial era meta-narratives that continue to inform some curatorial practices and aspects of popular mountaineering culture and histories. An edited volume is to follow, alongside further research grant applications and other outputs.
Since conferment of my doctorate I have continued to plough this furrow. In September 2013 I edited a special issue of Sport in History on 'Gender and climbing histories'. This featured new research on climbing cultures from doctoral researchers and recent UK-based post-doctoral researchers following two successful panels convened at the British Society of Sport History annual conference. More recently, I wrote an article on the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs for a special issue on 'Women in Mountaineering' published in International Journal of the History of Sport, on the involvement of women climbers in the emergence and evolution of high-altitude charity climbs. A follow-up piece, reprising the work I started on Alison Hargreaves, has returned to the questions of gender and parenthood and has examined the ascent of the British celebrity adventurer and broadcaster Ben Fogle, who summited Everest in 2018, whose memoir Up: My Life's Journey to the Top of Everest (William Collins, 2018) speaks of the entangled emotional connections to family life and Everest dreams.
A new phase of this research continues into 2022 following the award with Dr Jonathan Westaway (University of Central Lancashire, PI) of an AHRC Network Award grant for a project called Other Everests: Commemoration, Memory and Meaning and the British Everest Expedition Centenaries, 2021-2024. This will produce events that bring together international scholars to examine the commemorative and interpretive activities surrounding the first British Everest Expedition centenaries as a means to challenge persistent colonial era meta-narratives that continue to inform some curatorial practices and aspects of popular mountaineering culture and histories. An edited volume is to follow, alongside further research grant applications and other outputs.
Celebrity Embodiment and Climbing Mount Everest
Currently, I am researching prominent celebrities who have journeyed to, attempted and in some cases succeeded, in climbing Everest. These include: ex-Olympic cycling champion Victoria Pendleton, broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle, UK special forces veteran and broadcaster Ant Middleton, and film and TV star Brian Blessed. Their cases have much to reveal about continued constructions of heroic masculinities, the mediation of emotion and authenticity, and the complex nostalgias that emerge as the celebrities engage with the histories and intertextualities of the spaces of Everest. I'm happy to speak on this exciting new phase of my research...
Research Funding
2021 AHRC, Network Award. Other Everests: Commemoration, Memory and Meaning and the British Everest Expedition Centenaries, 2021-2024. AH/W004917/1 (£29,895) [Co-I].
Publications
'Fatherhood, emotional (dis)entanglements and adventurous masculinities: Ben Fogle on Everest', in Hall, J. and Hall, M. (eds.) The Mountain and the Politics of Representation. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2022, forthcoming.
'Embodied causes: climbing, charity, and celanthropy', International Journal of the History of Sport (special issue on Women in Mountaineering), 39(7), 2020, pp.709-726.
‘Davis, Ian Gordon McNaught -’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.107689
Review of Peter Hansen's, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering After the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 15(3), doi: 10.1353/cch.2014.0049
Review of Making Meaning out of Mountains by Mark C.J. Stoddart. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, forthcoming.
'Gender and British climbing histories' (ed.) special issue of Sport in History, 33(3), 2013.
'Mountains, manliness and post-war recovery: CE Montague's 'Action'', Sport in History, 33(3), 2013, pp.282-302.
'Beyond the brink: Beachy Head as a climbing landscape', International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(10), 2012, pp.1,383-1,404.
Review of Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing by Simon Thompson. Milnthorpe: Cicerone Press, 2010. Sport in History, 31(3), 2011, pp.343-346.
Review of The Apprenticeship of a Mountaineer: Edward Whymper's London Diary 1855-1859. Edited by I. Smith. London: London Record Society Publications Volume 43, 2008. The London Journal, 35(3), 2010, pp.311-312.
'Heroic leadership, mountain adventure and Englishness: John Hunt and Chris Bonington compared', in C. Hart (ed.) Heroines and Heroes: Symbolism, Embodiment, Narratives & Identity. Kingswinford: Midrash Publishing, 2008, pp.247-260.
'"Motherhood, ambition and risk" mediating the sporting hero/ine in Conservative Britain', Media, Culture and Society, 29(3), 2007, pp.387-406.
'Reality TV on the rockface - climbing the Old Man of Hoy', Sport in History, 27(1), 2007, pp.44-63.
'The politics of totemic sporting heroes and the conquest of Everest', Anthropological Notebooks, 12(2), 2006, pp.35-52.
'Embodied causes: climbing, charity, and celanthropy', International Journal of the History of Sport (special issue on Women in Mountaineering), 39(7), 2020, pp.709-726.
‘Davis, Ian Gordon McNaught -’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.107689
Review of Peter Hansen's, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering After the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 15(3), doi: 10.1353/cch.2014.0049
Review of Making Meaning out of Mountains by Mark C.J. Stoddart. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, forthcoming.
'Gender and British climbing histories' (ed.) special issue of Sport in History, 33(3), 2013.
'Mountains, manliness and post-war recovery: CE Montague's 'Action'', Sport in History, 33(3), 2013, pp.282-302.
'Beyond the brink: Beachy Head as a climbing landscape', International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(10), 2012, pp.1,383-1,404.
Review of Unjustifiable Risk? The Story of British Climbing by Simon Thompson. Milnthorpe: Cicerone Press, 2010. Sport in History, 31(3), 2011, pp.343-346.
Review of The Apprenticeship of a Mountaineer: Edward Whymper's London Diary 1855-1859. Edited by I. Smith. London: London Record Society Publications Volume 43, 2008. The London Journal, 35(3), 2010, pp.311-312.
'Heroic leadership, mountain adventure and Englishness: John Hunt and Chris Bonington compared', in C. Hart (ed.) Heroines and Heroes: Symbolism, Embodiment, Narratives & Identity. Kingswinford: Midrash Publishing, 2008, pp.247-260.
'"Motherhood, ambition and risk" mediating the sporting hero/ine in Conservative Britain', Media, Culture and Society, 29(3), 2007, pp.387-406.
'Reality TV on the rockface - climbing the Old Man of Hoy', Sport in History, 27(1), 2007, pp.44-63.
'The politics of totemic sporting heroes and the conquest of Everest', Anthropological Notebooks, 12(2), 2006, pp.35-52.
