The Roof-Climber's Guide to St John's (Climbing Cambridge)

One of the Very Rarest Climbing Titles written. “There is a wonderful and indefinable charm about the roofs, somewhat akin to the fascination of the mountains; and the man who falls beneath the spell of either is drawn so irresistibly towards them that he must yield to the magic of their call.”

The Roof-Climber’s Guide to St John’s is the highly-esteemed companion title to The Roof-Climber’s Guide to Trinity. Written anonymously twenty-one years later, this fascinating, unofficial tour of the roofs less travelled was compiled as an homage to that classic, but is itself a standalone triumph of this extraordinary historic pastime. Similar in style to the Trinity guide, the book lists the routes every person in statu pupillari needs to know to find their way around the stegophilic landscape of one of the country’s oldest rooftop ranges.

“Only we of the brotherhood know the joy of the cigarette that is lit as we lie full length on the leads, hands all a-tremble, every muscle tingling with the effort and excitement of the climb just accomplished. Truly, it is a noble sport and worthy of man.”

The Oleander Press is proud to present one of the rarest historic climbing titles; a member of that select group of books which make up the night-climbing library, which includes two further editions of The Roof-Climber’s Guide to Trinity (1930 and 1960), Wall and Roof Climbing (1905), and The Night Climbers of Cambridge (1937). These comprise the bulk of the Cambridge Climbing corpus; all are available from The Oleander Press.