..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
cicerone 50th anniversary limited edition. edited by kev reynolds. cicerone publishing hardback. 156pp illus £22.50.
marcus tullius cicero served as a consul in the roman empire around 63bc and was reputedly proficient in public speaking, law and philosophy. born into a wealthy municipal family specialising in equestrianism, he his considered to be amongst rome's finest orators and writers. he also, perhaps unwittingly, offered the derivative naming of a cicerone as a guide, one who provides an intelligent overview of museums, galleries and matters of archaeological, historical and artistic interest to interested visitors and sightseers.
quoted in the 1762 edition of the oxford english dictionary, the word was defined as applicable to learned antiquarians, who showed and explained a country's antiquities and curiosities to visiting foreigners.
in the year when neil armstrong walked on the moon, the name was also appropriated by cicerone publishing in 1969 when they printed the first editions of ga hassell's guide to the northern lake district along with ian clough's 'ben nevis and glen coe', before straying farther afield the following year with a compendium of walks and climbs in ramsdal, norway. cicerone now publish well over 400 comprehensive guide books covering pretty much every corner of the known world, aimed at both walkers and cyclists. i have been fortunate to review many of the latter in these very pixels.
in celebration of fifty years of success, cicerone have eschewed their regular compact, paperback format and produced a sumptuous, coffee table style hardback that would scarcely be of consideration if heading out on your latest bikepacking adventure. however, adventure is not only at the heart of what cicerone are all about, it's at the centre of the ethos behind this 156 page book.
for the benefit of those of us who could loosely be described as 'armchair explorers', the number of impeccable colour illustrations contained within are likely to offer hours of proxy adventure, accompanied by contributions from cicerone authors and edited by kev reynolds. should the effectiveness of the publication ever be in doubt, the opening double-page spread of mountain tops peeking through the cloudbase, will absorb all but the soul-less for an appreciable period of time. on reaching the facing page to an appreciation on page nine, there is little alternative to experiencing a sharp intake of breath when viewing the 6,800 metre south face of a snow covered jitchu drake in bhutan (above). first climbed in 1988, there is now a ban imposed on all mountain climbing in the region.
however, i would surmise that few of those reading will be of a mountaineering persuasion, more inclined to stick to mountain biking or perchance, road-going velocipedinal activity. if i might paraphrase a william blake quote from the book's prologue, the guides come alive when 'men (and women) and bicycles meet'.
not unnaturally for a book celebrating fifty years of publishing, there is a chapter devoted to the origination of the company. it transpires that cicerone was the brainchild of two climbers originally hailing from yorkshire and lancaster: walt unsworth and brian evans. while working as a teacher, unsworth harboured ambitions to be a writer. evans ultimately found work as an artist, having spent four years studying at leeds college of art. he was asked to illustrate several of the articles published in 'climber and rambler', written by unsworth, who subsequently gave up his teaching career to edit the magazine when the original editor departed the fold.
the rest, as they say, is history.
there's no denying that'celebrating fifty years of adventure' is geared more towards the walker, hiker and hill/mountain climber, but that's not to say the cyclist is altogether ignored. cycling readers are regaled with an insight into the offroad world of 'the bowderdale classic' and 'the tissington trail', augmented with tales of riding the 'danube cycleway' and a paean to the bicycle saddle. however, to compartmentalise in such a fashion is sort of to miss the point of this book. cicerone as a publisher, is all about adventure, predominantly helping the uninitiated to find their way around hitherto unknown regions. this book is a celebration of every aspect of that philosophy, explored with great verve when separated from the need to state in which direction to turn or where to find a decent campsite.
it would be wrong to direct this book as an introduction to the incredible wealth of international guiding afforded by cicerone's regular output, but rather as a standalone appreciation of the marvellous world in which we live. and at the risk of being particularly twee, the more of us who ride bicycles rather than take to the automobile, the longer that world might last in its present state.
celebrating fifty years of adventure
wednesday 19 december 2018
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................