Writer and broadcaster Dan Richards at Gladstone's Library

Gladstone's Library, Hawarden

By Rhian Waller - Gladstone's Library PR and marketing

As we approach autumn, the Gladstone's Library events team is looking at our events programme for the latter part of the year.

Quite a few new courses and talks have been added, and we would encourage you to browse them on the Library website, but today we are thrilled to share the news that author Dan Richards, one of our most popular returning speakers, will be back at Gladstone's Library in September.

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 (Director of Collections and Research) 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.

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). 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.

Dan recently oversaw the re-publication of his great-grand-aunt Dorothy Pilley's classic 1935 mountaineering memoir Climbing Days (2024), and he will share it with you at an upcoming talk.

This talk is something of an experiment for us. Normally, they take place on weeknights or weekends. This time, we are hosting the talk in early afternoon on September 23, a Monday, as we would like to make our events more accessible to people who normally could not attend. If that's you, please come along!

Attendees can also purchase tea and scones or a book (which Dan will sign) after the talk.

• The Climbing Days of Dorothy Pilley - a conversation with Dan Richards takes place 2-3pm. In-person tickets are £15 - these are available on www.gladstoneslibrary.org.