Cicerone author Kev Reynolds celebrates success

While his speech was mostly mountain-based, he concluded by saying:

‘The mountains that have dominated my working days these past thirty years, are no better than the gentle green hills and meadows of home. Just different, that’s all. And making the connection, I revel in that difference. And why not? [Now that autumn is here] of an early morning webs of gossamer strung along a fence line are dressed with pearls of dew. The grass is wet. There are no more caterpillars in slow rappel from a branch five metres up, and most of the butterflies have disappeared. But the blackbird sings at the break of day, and at dusk his chip-chip-chip call heralds the gathering darkness. Life ‘Out There’ is full of gifts.’

Kev was later elected an Honorary Member of SELVA (Société d’Etudes de la Littérature de Voyage Anglophone) – a European society of travel writers in the English language, and on arriving back in Kent discovered that his memoir of trekking in the Nepal Himalaya (Abode of the Gods) was Highly Commended in the OWPG Awards for Excellence. The judges commented:

The author skilfully conveys the excitement, joys, and physical and spiritual fulfilment of trekking in the Himalayas. This affectionate memoir brings the colour, smells and grandeur of the region to every page.

About Kev Reynolds

A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drives Kev's desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, guiding, photography and lecturing. Spending several months every year among various high mountain regions researching guidebooks, makes him The Man with the World's Best Job; a title he aims to keep by remaining active for another 100 years at least.

Kev has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone since the 1970s, producing 50 books, including guides to five major trekking regions of Nepal, and to numerous routes in the European Alps and Pyrenees, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds and he has several more books in the pipeline. His latest book, Abode of the Gods, is a collection of autobiographical short stories recording 50 years of mountain travel and adventures. He is also the contributing editor of the collaborative guide Trekking in the Himalaya.

A frequent contributor to outdoor magazines, Kev also writes and illustrates brochures for national tourist authorities and travel companies. When not away in the mountains, Kev lives with his wife in a small cottage among what he calls 'the Kentish Alps', with unrestricted walking country on the doorstep. But he also travels throughout Britain during the winter months to share his love of the places he writes about through a series of lectures.