'Stunning' THE TIMES 'Sheer brilliance' Iain M Banks 'Like prose poetry, it's beautiful' Harriett Gilbert CLIMBERS is a novel of life-changing moments, incredible descriptions of landscape and the power of an obsession. The first novel to win the BOARDMAN TASKER PRIZE, with an introduction by Robert Macfarlane, author of THE OLD WAYS. A young man seeks to get a grip on his life by taking up rock-climbing. He hopes that by engaging with the hard realities of the rock and the fall he can grasp what is important about life. But as he is drawn into the obsessive world of climbing he learns that taking things to the edge comes with its own price. Retreating from his failed marriage, Mike leaves London for the Yorkshire moors, where he meets a group of climbers and misfits, busy pursuing their own dreams of escape. Travelling from crag to crag throughout the country, they are searching for the unattainable: the perfect climb. Through rock-climbing, Mike discovers an intensity of experience - a wash of pain, fear and excitement - that obliterates the rest of his world.

Increasingly addicted to the adrenaline, folklore and camaraderie of the sport, he finds, for a time, a genuine escape. But it is gained at a price. This dark, witty and poetic novel is full of the rugged beauty of nature, of the human drive to test oneself against extremes, and of the elation such escape can bring.