"I am sorry to have left it so long before adding something to the web site. It has been a strange and taxing year; one that only now am I beginning to enjoy retrospectively. The publicity tour at the start of the year was about as much as I could handle. Over 400 interviews in the first 2 months of the year, with over 160,000 air miles gained, left me feeling that it might have been better that the film had never been made! At the same time my corporate speaking engagements went from a yearly average of 20 to 50 with all the travel that is involved. By mid year I disliked the film with a vengeance.

However things have now calmed down and let me relax and look back on an extraordinary year. Perhaps my proudest moment was when the film won at Kendal. For the film to be acknowledged by my peers and fellow lovers of the mountains was a wonderful boost and made many things worthwhile. When, at the after party, mountaineers as exalted as Alex Huber and Conrad Anker told me it was the best mountaineering film ever made I was quite stunned; then again we had drunk a very large amount of beer by then!

The film has gone on to win 12 Awards (see the news section) and has been short-listed for the Oscars. Knowing that it has been so well received by the wider non-climbing world is an even greater achievement for the film makers.

The film won the 2004 Baftas Outstanding British Film of the Year, beating ‘ Cold Mountain ', ‘Love Actually' and ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring' and The Evening Standard Best film of the year 2004. It became officially the most successful documentary in British cinema history with box office sales exceeding 2.6 million, over a million more than it's nearest rival ‘Bowling for Columbine' . From a budget of 1.4 million pounds it has so far grossed 14.5 million pounds world wide. Sadly neither I, or the producers, received any of that largesse contrary to some wild speculation. The book has won the 1989 NCR non fiction award, the most valuable and prestigious award of its genre and the film has now won the highest British film award possible.

Although ‘Touching the Void' won the 1989 NCR Award for Non-Fiction, it was the 1988 Boardman-Tasker Memorial prize for mountaineering Literature that really meant something to me so it was wonderful to see the success at Kendal then mirrored by the success at the Bafta's (even if the tight gits refused to give me a replica Bafta mask. I shall make one out of papier mache!) It doesn't get much better than that so I decided to enjoy the last part of the year and allow a quiet moment of illicit pride.

I was surprised to hear that it had been short-listed to the last 12 for next years Oscars. The general consensus of opinion was that the very conservative Academy deemed any reconstruction used in a drama documentary as a mark against it. Odd, given that Michael Moore's 'Columbine' won an Oscar and one would have thought truth and accuracy might be more important criteria for a successful drama documentary than the innovative and highly effective use of reconstruction. I very much doubt it will be nominated for the last 5 but it would be a pleasant surprise. Then again, with the book and the film, I have always very much doubted they would win anything so maybe I will be proved wrong yet again. The reason for feeling sure it would have no chance of winning is that the subject is of interest only to a minority, it has nothing to do with America, jingoism and general gung-ho heroic military exploits and I dislike President Bush - hang on, so does Michael Moore, maybe we do have a chance. Although Michael Moore has removed Fahrenheit 9/11 from the contest, the short-listed film, ‘Super Size Me', about the fast food industry and hugely obese customers is my tip for the winner.

Would I attend if it was nominated and I was invited? Probably not. I don't fancy spending six hours watching a bunch of luvvies congratulating themselves and if we did win I would be unable to restrain myself from punching Kevin MacDonald. At the Baftas, despite being briefed on who he was supposed to thank, he thanked no-one. Luckily I was watching in my local, in Sheffield , otherwise I would have finished the job that Simon nearly achieved during filming! Apart from the crew and back room staff, he also refused to acknowledge Brian Hall and all the safety crew, without whom the locations would never have been found, half the film crew would have died in crevasse falls and the film would never have been completed. Some people have very high opinions of themselves.

One unwelcome side effect of the success of the film has been a greatly increased mail bag from people convinced it is their right to convert me to Christianity. I used to receive a fair few letters in the early days but thankfully they tailed off years ago. Once again I receive scores of letters, largely from America I might add, ranging from polite to offensive. There are usually a few words about how enjoyable the film was followed by pages and pages quoting the scriptures and insisting that the only way I could have survived was by God's hand. Although the vast majority are well intentioned there have been one or two quite disturbing, even scary ones. I do find it intriguing that Christianity sometimes appears less tolerant and more fundamentalist in nature than some other religions. I thought the point of living in a democracy was that we had the right to hold whatever religious or political beliefs that we choose so long as they in no way harmed anyone else within that nation. I would say that I am a well educated, widely read, extensively travelled, reasonably articulate and philosophically and emotionally sensitive individual. That I am an Atheist was a difficult and long pondered decision. That my lack of belief was tested in a crucible far more testing than most other people have experienced should at very least give me the right to quietly state my beliefs when asked and not be plagued by people who think I am wrong and they are right. The Desert Island Discs recording was especially irritating because Sue Lawley's insistence on returning again and again to the subject of Atheism was not a reflection on the hour of recorded interview I gave for the programme. I became increasingly annoyed that she simply would not accept my stated answer. I then received a whole batch of letters from British Christians lecturing me on their beliefs. For every ten received (and immediately binned) I would receive a welcome letter from other infuriated Atheists and Agnostics. Oddly enough I have never received letters from Muslims, Buddhists and Hindu's trying to show me the error of my ways. It has made the apparent rise of the religious right, particularly following the American election, seem all the more ominous to me.

The novel that I was 40,000 words into has remained in a state of limbo owing to the work load created by the film, but I hope to get back to writing in the New Year. Having said that, 15 speaking engagements have already been booked for next year, so it may be a slow business. Plans to write other books with a non-climbing subject are in the pipe line as are projects to work with Darlow Smithson on a 'Beckoning Silence' Eiger based drama documentary. The latter has yet to receive funding so I do not hold out much hope of it ever happening. My main concern last year and for the next two years is to achieve a level of financial security from which I can devote myself to writing full time. I find it very difficult to write in the fractured chunks of time that are presently available to me although I have tried to change the style and manner in which I write. My feeling is that I should try to reach a point where I can devote longer periods of time to writing than I presently have, without missing an opportunity to earn a pension and a financial buffer for the rest of my life.

I do follow messages posted to the web site and have been quite astounded at the massive increase in hits we are receiving - up from 20,000 a month to 300,000 since the film was released. Many of the messages are amusing, intriguing, flattering, embarrassing (to me), thought provoking and sometimes down right daft. Few, if any are, offensive and I believe Admin removes only those that it feels are offensive to you. My opinions in this are neither important, or relevant and I think only a couple of people have been blocked and all, as far as I am aware, with your later approval. I am sure you would tell Admin otherwise.

( I shouldn't really go into to details but there is one I cannot resist commenting on. A certain Mr, Ms, or Mrs Gar springs to mind which by the way is not the name of an ugly fish. That is a Ghar fish, sometimes called a needle fish, very long, thin, sharp beaked and a quite exquisite belt of silver that makes extraordinarily acrobatic jumps and is fiendishly difficult to catch on the fly... and of course I am assiduously trying 'to overcome the mountain of pride in my life', always a tricky one that, and I completely understand that I deserved to end up in a crevasse feeling a bit rough on account of my diabolical pact with Lucifer.... yeah right, I can remember having great chats with him all the way down.... born again!!! you bloody well should be mate... why not come back as a fish next time, I know just the right one... sorry I digress...)

But the only posting I would make some comment on was the one regarding my sexuality. I thought it a little odd that someone should think I was gay because I appeared to be an intelligent and sensitive man. In my books I have rarely referred to the personal side of my life out of respect for the wonderful people I have loved and care for. I didn't see, in the context of the books I was writing, that it had anything to do with anyone else. If that was the reason for someone believing I may be gay then I would like to inform you all that I am happily heterosexual and it would appear permanently single. Whatever my sexuality I can't for the life of me see what difference it might make ... wait a moment... oh, yes, I do, the religious right would be outraged... not such a bad idea... Gar… ho hum… no, don't even go there… being sensitive and cute (not my claim whatever the hell it means) does not necessarily mean I wish to have sex with another man, leastways it didn't the last time I consulted a dictionary.

Many thanks for all your enthusiastic support and I hope you all have a fun festive time and a healthy and happy future. Especially you Gar, I hope someone gets you some candles for Christmas, you might lighten up a bit."