The Kendal Mountain Book Festival has become an integral – and rapidly growing – part of the main Mountain Festival, and 2007 proved to be a vintage year.

The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature brought its special blend of suspense and excitement, with the 2007 winner announced as Robert MacFarlane’s The Wild Places (see above).

A special retrospective brought together previous BT winners Al Alverez, Andy Cave and Greg Child, chaired by Ed Douglas. Ed also chaired a discussion between three of the best nature writers working in English today - Richard Mabey, Kathleen Jamie and the US best-selling author John Vaillant - about their work and their relationship with the natural world.

The International Festival of Mountain Literature moved to Kendal with an event titled ‘When is Adventure Madness?’ Hosted by Terry Gifford, this was a day packed with live music, readings, discussions, conversations and debates. Guest speakers include Jeff Long, Clint Willis and Mikel Vause from the USA, Geoff Powter (Canada) plus Tony Streather, Charles Lind, John Porter, Ed Douglas, Vicki Robinson, Ian Smith and Jan Levi. 

In addition Kendal Library hosted two events - Bill Birkett launched his latest book Scafell - Portrait of a Mountain with readings and conversation, plus there was an exclusive one-off audience with legendary mountaineer Doug Scott.

Altogether a special year for the Book Festival, and we look forward to seeing you in 2008.