Non-Fiction Books

In 1945, when Gwen Moffat was in her twenties, she deserted her post as a driver and dispatch rider in the Army and went to live rough in Wales and Cornwall, climbing and living on practically nothing. She hitchhiked her way around, travelling from Skye to Chamonix and many places in between, with all her possessions on her back, although these amounted to little more than a rope and a sleeping bag.When the money ran out, she worked as a forester, went winkle-picking on the Isle of Skye, acted as the helmsman of a schooner, and did a stint as an artist's model. And always there were the mountains, drawing her away from a "proper" job.Throughout this unique story, there are acutely observed accounts of mountaineering exploits as Moffat tackles the toughest climbs and goes on to become Britain's leading female climber—and the first woman to qualify as a mountain guide.

The author followed the trail taken by the American pioneers in their covered wagons. Setting out by truck from Omaha on the Missouri, she travelled across half the country, camping rough, and several times risking her life.

'The sense of time, space and wilderness is admirably, sometimes piercingly conveyed' - OBSERVER 'She has the happy knack of capturing the tenseness and excitement of each moment and sharing it with the reader' - TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT In the autumn of 1848 a party of thirty-four men left the Missouri River bound for the uncharted Rocky Mountains of Colorado, to find a route for the first railway through the American West. There were two thousand miles of wilderness, and the leader, John Charles Fremont, was taking them into the worst winter in living memory. In sub-zero temperatures, they endured blizzards that lasted for days on end. There were clashes of personality, appalling mistakes in judgement, and amazing courage. Inevitably there was starvation. Holed up, they ate the mules, their candles and their boots. Here, Gwen Moffat retraces the footsteps of this disastrous expedition.