Headline to publish mountaineer Leo Houlding

Headline Publishing Group has acquired Closer to the Edge: Climbing to the Ends of the Earth by mountaineer and adventurer Leo Houlding.

Publisher for non-fiction Iain MacGregor acquired world rights from Geraldine Woods at Yellow Poppy Media. The title will be published in hardback in autumn 2022.

Closer to the Edge is billed as an "emotional, riveting, colourful and exciting" insight into Houlding's extreme life. The author started climbing at 10 years of age in the Lake District and was the youngest person and first ever Briton to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the United States. He has since gone on to summit the world’s toughest peaks and explore the most extreme places on the planet. He has had to deal with tragedy when close friends and colleagues have been killed or badly injured and he will discuss how you deal with such loss and carry on.

MacGregor said: "I have been lucky enough to publish some of Britain’s greatest explorers and mountaineers such as Sir Chris Bonington, Levison Wood and Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Leo Houlding is recognised by his peers in the British mountaineering elite of being arguably our very best. He is a driven extreme sportsman who also happens to have the ability to translate his numerous adventures into riveting narrative. Closer to the Edge will be on a par with Touching the Void by Joe Simpson."

Houlding commented: "Some people are born lucky. Not because of wealth or status but because they find something that they are truly passionate about early in life. I am one of those lucky people, as climbing became my profession and has taken me to places I never imagined could exist on adventures beyond my wildest dreams. From skydiving into an extreme expedition in the high arctic; to lost worlds in the depths of the Amazon rainforest. It’s been a dangerous path with many close calls and good friends lost along the way. But that risk is what has made the journey so exciting and has taught me valuable lessons about facing fear, dreaming big and making the most of our precious time on Earth. I’m thrilled to partner with Headline to share some of these wonderful places and wild experiences in the hope they will inspire readers to embrace adventure, push their own limits and live with less fear."