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John D Burns

Outdoor author and speaker.

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  • Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast

  • Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast

  • Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast

  • David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast

  • It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast
Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast

Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast

August 27, 2026August 27, 2026John D Burns Comment
John D. Burns talks to Mark Lambert about his book, A man for all mountains, celebrating the remarkable life of mountaineer, broadcaster and [...]

Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast

August 5, 2026August 5, 2026John D Burns Comment
I recently Interviewed David Barter about his book Great Scottish Bike Rides and it occurred to me that the vast majority of cycling [...]

Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast

July 16, 2026July 27, 2026John D Burns
As you gaze across the landscape of the Highlands you will see vast areas of magnificent hills and lochs that stir the imagination, [...]

David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast

June 25, 2026July 10, 2026John D Burns
John D. Burns talks to Dave Barter about his new book Great Scottish Bike Rides. (Available to pre-order now) Released 6 July. Scotland [...]

It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast

June 12, 2026June 12, 2026John D Burns
Derek Williams Sound Editor John D. Burns talks to Stuart Younie, CEO of Mountaineering Scotland and Ewan Watson, Project Manager for the Outdoor [...]

Dan Bailey: UKHillwalking.com | Podcast

May 29, 2026May 29, 2026John D Burns
For better or worse, the Internet has changed all our lives. Dan Bailey talks to John D. Burns about the influence the influence [...]

Bobby Motherwell: Singer/Songwriter, Poet and Climber | Podcast

April 28, 2026May 1, 2026John D Burns
Sound Editor Derek Williams In this podcast Bobby Motherwell talks to John D. Burns about his deep connection with wild places and how [...]

Climbing in Yosemite: A Memoir – Dennis Gray | Podcast

April 8, 2026April 10, 2026John D Burns
Sound editor Derek Williams The development of big wall climbing in Yosemite in the second half of the twentieth century was a seminal [...]

Martyn Howe: The Coast is Our Compass | Podcast

March 27, 2026March 27, 2026John D Burns
John D. Burns talks to Martyn Howe about his remarkable journey along the King Charles III coastal path. In this interview Martyn reveals [...]

Matt Heason: Wild Rock | Podcast

March 11, 2026March 11, 2026John D Burns
John D. Burns talks to author and adventurer, Matt Heason, about his new book, Wild Rock, which explores some of the great scrambling [...]

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John D. Burns has spent over forty years among the mountains of the Scottish Highlands. He is an author and public speaker. His books tell of his adventures in this iconic landscape and have become classics for those who love wild places.
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Outside In Podcast
Outside In Podcast

From the Highlands of Scotland, climbers, hikers and nature lovers talk about their experiences in the wild

Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
byJohn D Burns

John D. Burns talks to Mark Lambert about his book, A man for all mountains, celebrating the remarkable life of mountaineer, broadcaster and educator, Jack Longland.

Mark Lambert has produced far more than a biography. He’s recreated an era when great unclimbed cliffs still existed, Everest remained a mystery, Greenland’s highest summit was unclimbed, and Britain’s finest climbers simply got on with extraordinary adventures. It was however something else, something quite striking that captivated me about this book. Longland himself was clearly an excellent writer. Many climbing biographies rely on modern narrative around sparse historical sources, but here the subject’s own words repeatedly become the highlights of the book. That, perhaps more than anything, explains why his voice has echoed through climbing literature for nearly a century.

For anyone interested in the Golden Age of British mountaineering, it’s an immensely rewarding read.

Mark Lambert

Jack Longland was one of Britain’s complete mountaineers: technically gifted, intellectually curious, adventurous, modest and seemingly happiest whenever there was unexplored ground ahead.

Here are a few extracts from the book…

Of Greenland and black and white photography.

‘In the clear northern light we could see the broad, unbroken line of the ice floes ahead, punctuated with big icebergs.’

‘The mountains faded as the coast bent away, a line of snow-marked peaks, with clean, white glaciers dropping to the fjords between. At once came a realisation of the drab inadequacy of most arctic photographs on seeing for the first time the glittering ice, the cold brilliance of the sky.’

‘The next day they woke to calmer seas. And soon they encountered their first Inuit, a pair hunting on the floes some four miles from the coast.’

‘The team spent an hour and a half on the summit. Fountaine was busy with his boiling-point thermometers, eventually producing similar results from all three to give a height of 12,250 feet (3,734 metres).’

‘Courtauld took theodolite readings to link in with his work at Camp VII, and Munck, rather sheepishly, produced a Danish flag.’

‘They had made the first ascent of the highest mountain in the Arctic, but as yet it had no name. Sometime later, the Place-name Committee in Copenhagen decided on Gunnbjørn Tinde. ‘Tinde’ means ‘summit’, and ‘Gunnbjørn’ recalled the tenth-century Viking Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, who was driven by a storm into the seas west of Iceland, saw glaciers to the west and was thus the first to discover Greenland.’

Speaking of his famous descent with eight porters on the 1933 Everest expedition.

On the journey to reach the campsite.

‘Perched on the north face of Everest, it was also the most inhospitable, the most precarious and probably the most dangerous. The word ‘campsite’ had no meaning here – this was a tiny ledge to which a six-by-four-foot tent had been made to cling only after snow and ice had been hacked out and a stony platform of sorts scraped together at its outer edge. Even then the tent floor sloped crazily downwards and its outermost third overhung the edge, flapping over the face that fell 6,000 feet to the Rongbuk Glacier.’

‘The north face of Everest is made up of slabs overlapping like tiles on a roof pitched at about forty-five degrees. These slabs are devoid of holds or features so that ice or snow clings to them only here and there; progress depended upon the tenuous grip of boot nails and a steady balance. There were few if any anchor points, so if one man were to slip, he would pull with him any others to whom he was roped.

So they had climbed unroped.’

jack Longland was also an accomplished broadcaster appearing on many radio panel games which were among the most popular media shows of his generation.

https://youtu.be/bSKaNjFotK0?si=PvUATPdj_vbpAa_1

A Man for all Mountains is available from all good bookstores,

Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
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Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
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Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast
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Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast
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David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast
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It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast
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Dan Bailey: UKHillwalking.com | Podcast
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Bobby Motherwell: Singer/Songwriter, Poet and Climber | Podcast
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Climbing in Yosemite: A Memoir – Dennis Gray | Podcast
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Martyn Howe: The Coast is Our Compass | Podcast
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Matt Heason: Wild Rock | Podcast
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Recent Posts

  • Jack Longland – Biography: Mark Lambert | Podcast
  • Peter Silburn: The Norwich Cycling Campaign | Podcast
  • Steve Micklewright: Scottish Rewilding Alliance | Podcast
  • David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast
  • It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast

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