I love books about nature and the outdoors. When I came across Wild Wanderings, the title was so intriguing and made me want to read it. I liked a lot the writing of Phil Gribbon in this book, I love the humour he uses. In this book, we explore 34 moments of life of Phil and, as a climber, I loved this reading.

The title of this book is one of the most apt I've come across, it has the author wandering in the wild but it is also about him wandering through his memories...and with 70 years of memories that is a lot of area to wander in.

I got this book from NetGalley and I know that means it isn't the complete article but the layout made this an odd read. The book is made up of 34 memorable moments in Phil's career, the front of the book has a section describing the moment, and then a section describing the characters, why that has been chucked at the beginning is beyond me, it would have worked better having that info at the beginning of each memory. Hopefully that might change it's final release.

The style of writing was interesting, instead of facts and being written as the event happened, the memories have been written in the style of fiction, new names for people and some places. I felt that worked well, it gives the writer more space for when he wants to go on a tangent. The book is more directed at climbers, you need to know the lingo to grasp all that was happening. I still managed to take a lot from this book, there is a feeling of time passing as you read about Phil larking about as a young adult and then as an old man taking on one of his last Munros. Then you get to read about accidents and near misses, eventually getting to that eventual death of a fellow walker, you really feel Phil's pain as many years later he is still trying to convince himself that he did all he could.

A very good collection by a climber with so much history, anybody into climbing mountains will enjoy reading this.

Admittedly, anything more strenuous than a leisurely walk in the countryside on a summer’s day gets a bit too much for me to think about. However, I ended up enjoying this collection of musings and stories a lot more than I thought I was going to when I first started it.

Gribbon writes in an accessible and conversational manner with a great deal of humour, so it’s easy for even someone who usually might not have a strong interest in walking and climbing books to get something out of it.

The man has seen a lot in his seventy years in mountaineering, from everything to animal rescue to the sad discovery of other lost climbers. Oddly enough, I found his tale relating to the loss of his beloved ‘sticka’ (a fallen branch fashioned into a walking stick that he used for over twenty years) to be one of the most moving moments of the book.

With thanks to Netgalley and Luath Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.