Overview

Praise for the man and book from Leo Houlding... Johnny Dawes is the enigmatic front man of an eclectic band of British climbers who in the mid 1980's redefined the standards of difficulty and danger in traditional climbing. Introducing the world to the impossible grades of E8 & E9, and laying the foundations of the modern scene, Johnny's unique style and character have become legend. This long awaited book gives his take on a highly influential period of climbing history and a look inside the mind of a tormented genius. Written with devoted passion and brutal honesty, Full of Myself lays bare Johnny's bipolar mix of privilege and pain, wizardry and dysfunction. Master of friction and maestro of momentum on rock and road, orchestrator of contemporary climbing techniques such as the dead-point and dyno, the living embodiment of poetry in motion turns his hand to the pen with great effect. Ed Douglas adds... Johnny Dawes is a legend in British climbing. In 1986, he was responsible for the most inspired new route in a generation, when he climbed Indian Face on Clogwyn d'ur Arddu in Snowdonia. Difficult and tenuous, a fall from its hardest move would most likely be fatal. But Dawes is much more than a risk-taker. His rich imagination has left a legacy of outstanding new routes all over the country, not least on the gritstone edges of Derbyshire where his bold and fluid style reached its fullest expression. He's an artist really, a choreographer with a warrior spirit. And from Simon Beaufoy (Academy Award winning screenwriter of The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire )... Each generation produces a handful of visionaries, people who can see beyond the possible. Whether he likes it or not, Johnny is climbing's visionary. There are accounts of terrifying first-ascents on crumbling sea cliffs and even more terrifying accounts of van-driving around Wales. At the heart of the book is a man traversing on crystals towards some kind of understanding of who he is, a man less earth-bound than us climbing mortals, but who cannot, quite, fly. Much like his climbing, his imagination leaps - this is a beautiful book about an extraordinary person. William Blake with sticky boots.

Full Product Details

9780957030800

Table of Contents

Reviews

It's brilliant - frank, funny, telling his full life story and not just the climbing. And the climbing accounts are riveting as well. A great read from cover to cover. (Sir Chris Bonington) An insight into the mind of one of the greatest and most daring rock climbers of the 20th century - sometimes very funny, sometimes very scary. (Joe Brown, MBE) I don't climb, I ride bikes, but this book got me by the balls!!! (Steve Peat, World Downhill Mountainbike Champion.) Johnny always seemed some kind of freak from the very first picture of him I ever saw. I could see positive freakiness that made him go out of the ordinary, to climb with ease things that must be admired and that should inspire many to come. (Adam Ondra) Like a Terry Pratchett novel it gives an insight into the many dimensions of Johnny's life which left me in stitches. (James McHaffie) I've been fortunate to climb with some of the best climbers of the last 30 years, Fawcett, Moon, Moffat, McClure, but only when climbing with Johnny have I been baffled and bemused. To watch him climb in his prime was something special, so special that some dismissed it as an oddity, don't be fooled, the term great is rarely bestowed on anyone in climbing but Johnny is one of the greats. (Zippy)

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available