Roy Clark

When I was a child growing up in Liverpool, I sought out city parks and areas where small oases of nature still existed on the edge of the sprawling spread of suburbia. My adventures in these places occasionally led me into trouble, but for the most part, they did just the opposite. I found an enchanting world of trees to climb, fields of grass as tall as myself, and fascinating creatures that inhabited the ponds that I sometimes fell in. The vertical walls of disused railway cuttings became the 'North Wall of the Eiger' and the first place that I tried to scale with a friend using a few meters of my Mum's borrowed washing line. A school trip to Snowdonia in North Wales confirmed my feelings that I was lost to the great outdoors. There were of course a few distractions along the way - girls, guitars, motorbikes and jobs - but it always came back to the hills and it still does. I've been fortunate to 'live the dream' in the Scottish Highlands and in the Alps of Slovenia, and I am now living in a rural part of West Ireland with my wife, Justi, with whom I've shared many an outdoor adventure. I hope my joy and enthusiasm for the outdoors is reflected in my writing, whether that is my guidebooks to Slovenia's beautiful mountains or my current series of memoirs. www.royclarkauthor.com www.facebook.com/mccannsfarmmayo