The Climbing Days of Dorothy Pilley – a conversation with Dan Richards

The Climbing Days of Dorothy Pilley – a conversation with Dan Richards 
Monday 23rd September, 2-3pm 
In-person tickets are £15. View online (Zoom) tickets are £10. Book by calling 01244 532 350 (Reception is open from 8am to 8pm) or email [email protected] 


In 2016, inspired by the memoir of his ‘Aunt Dorothy’, writer and broadcaster Dan Richards set off to follow in her footsteps. The journey would take him from Magdalen College to the top of the Alps, and the result was his beguiling travelogue Climbing Days. Along the way readers learned that ‘Aunt Dorothy’ was actually Dorothy Pilley, accomplished mountain climber and co-founder of the first women’s climbing club. Now, for the first time since the 1930s, readers can read Dorothy’s own Climbing Days, in an edition re-issued by Canongate. 

In this afternoon event, Dan will join Louisa Yates for a conversation about challenges of all kinds, be that gaining recognition as a woman climber, researching one’s own family or what it takes to get up an Alpine peak. Tea and scones, and a book signing with Dan, takes place immediately after. 

Dan Richards is a writer and broadcaster with an eye for the unusual. The author of Holloway (2014), The Beechwood Airship Interviews (2015), Climbing Days (2016) and Outpost (2019), Dan spends a lot of time off the beaten track. His writing is regularly praised for its observational eye and wry humour. His next book is Overnight (2025), celebrates the night and explores the nocturnal operations which sustain, repair and protect the world whilst most of us are asleep. Only After Dark, a BBC Radio 4 series with a similar focus to Overnight, was broadcast to acclaim in 2022. 
Dan recently oversaw the republication of his great-grand-aunt Dorothy Pilley’s classic 1935 mountaineering memoir Climbing Days (2024).  


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