Kate Armstrong
@katejarmstrong.bsky.social
📖 Memoir about grief, collapse, recovery, and big mountains coming Chatto & Windus ‘27
🎉Bridport Prize runner up ‘24/25
🏔️Prefers being in the hills
https://linktr.ee/beyondthemountain
🎉Bridport Prize runner up ‘24/25
🏔️Prefers being in the hills
https://linktr.ee/beyondthemountain
Pinned
Insufficient space here to say it in detail - BUT - the high level is that I’ve just signed a book deal:
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
Not mountains. Instead, London winter beaches at their best.
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Not mountains. Instead, London winter beaches at their best.
Okay, October, you were pretty good.
November 5, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Okay, October, you were pretty good.
I’ve recently started spending writing time in the foyer of the National Theatre. It’s not mountains, obviously, but somehow the textures, solidity, lines, height offer something akin.
November 4, 2025 at 11:39 AM
I’ve recently started spending writing time in the foyer of the National Theatre. It’s not mountains, obviously, but somehow the textures, solidity, lines, height offer something akin.
My very wonderful mother-in-law periodically sends me newspaper cuttings she thinks I might like. Here’s the most recent, and frankly gorgeous, selection, with Jannu East taking centre stage.
October 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
My very wonderful mother-in-law periodically sends me newspaper cuttings she thinks I might like. Here’s the most recent, and frankly gorgeous, selection, with Jannu East taking centre stage.
Insufficient space here to say it in detail - BUT - the high level is that I’ve just signed a book deal:
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
October 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Insufficient space here to say it in detail - BUT - the high level is that I’ve just signed a book deal:
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
My memoir of ‘grief, collapse, recovery and big mountains’ will be published by Chatto & Windus (part of PRH) in Jan/Feb 2027. I’m ecstatic.
(Here’s one of the mountains.)
Exciting day out today at the prize giving for the @bridportprize Memoir Award where I won runner up back in March.
Lesson for life: always prepare a mini-speech for this type of event, or you’ll get caught on the hop, be over-caffeinated, be fazed by the stage lighting, and will gabble.
Lesson for life: always prepare a mini-speech for this type of event, or you’ll get caught on the hop, be over-caffeinated, be fazed by the stage lighting, and will gabble.
October 18, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Exciting day out today at the prize giving for the @bridportprize Memoir Award where I won runner up back in March.
Lesson for life: always prepare a mini-speech for this type of event, or you’ll get caught on the hop, be over-caffeinated, be fazed by the stage lighting, and will gabble.
Lesson for life: always prepare a mini-speech for this type of event, or you’ll get caught on the hop, be over-caffeinated, be fazed by the stage lighting, and will gabble.
I wasn’t in the Lakes to walk the Coast to Coast, but I did find myself on a section of it for a couple of miles. That got me remembering the brilliant ‘You Are Here’ - and then I ended up in the bookshop in Grasmere. (There’s more to the Literary Lake District than merely Wordsworth.)
October 17, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I wasn’t in the Lakes to walk the Coast to Coast, but I did find myself on a section of it for a couple of miles. That got me remembering the brilliant ‘You Are Here’ - and then I ended up in the bookshop in Grasmere. (There’s more to the Literary Lake District than merely Wordsworth.)
A couple of days ago I took a walk above the clouds.
October 16, 2025 at 8:52 AM
A couple of days ago I took a walk above the clouds.
Definitely the best picture I’ve ever taken from a moving bus.
(Yes, it’s in colour. Yes, I’ve escaped for a few days to hills.)
(Yes, it’s in colour. Yes, I’ve escaped for a few days to hills.)
October 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Definitely the best picture I’ve ever taken from a moving bus.
(Yes, it’s in colour. Yes, I’ve escaped for a few days to hills.)
(Yes, it’s in colour. Yes, I’ve escaped for a few days to hills.)
Out last night to hear @darren_mcgarvey (brilliantly interviewed by Nicola Sturgeon) talking about his new book Trauma Industrial Complex - about trauma stories, how we consume them, and how those of us telling our stories can more responsibly look after ourselves. More of this, please.
October 11, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Out last night to hear @darren_mcgarvey (brilliantly interviewed by Nicola Sturgeon) talking about his new book Trauma Industrial Complex - about trauma stories, how we consume them, and how those of us telling our stories can more responsibly look after ourselves. More of this, please.
Walking through London earlier, I realised I was thinking of mountains - this one in particular: Ama Dablam, in the Nepalese Himalaya. I was there in 2010. Fifteen years is a long time for a particular piece of rock and ice to get under your skin. This one, it seems, is still very much under mine.
October 9, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Walking through London earlier, I realised I was thinking of mountains - this one in particular: Ama Dablam, in the Nepalese Himalaya. I was there in 2010. Fifteen years is a long time for a particular piece of rock and ice to get under your skin. This one, it seems, is still very much under mine.
Reposted by Kate Armstrong
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
For a long time now it’s been a paradox in my life, the activities I’ve been able to do whilst also being quite (sometimes extremely) unwell.
I often wonder how that looks from the outside. ‘She says that she has a chronic illness and yet there she is on a mountain’ etc.
So I wrote about it:
I often wonder how that looks from the outside. ‘She says that she has a chronic illness and yet there she is on a mountain’ etc.
So I wrote about it:
"But you climb mountains!"
It’s been a while, but hello - and a big welcome to the many of you who’ve subscribed since I last appeared.
open.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 8:13 AM
For a long time now it’s been a paradox in my life, the activities I’ve been able to do whilst also being quite (sometimes extremely) unwell.
I often wonder how that looks from the outside. ‘She says that she has a chronic illness and yet there she is on a mountain’ etc.
So I wrote about it:
I often wonder how that looks from the outside. ‘She says that she has a chronic illness and yet there she is on a mountain’ etc.
So I wrote about it:
And the anniversary itself. Six full years since my darling Matthew died. It’s so much easier now than the first years were. Nonetheless, I needed space, so I’ve been on a long walk in the Surrey Hills.
Grief softens. I’ve also grown around the scar. The scar remains. And onwards.
Grief softens. I’ve also grown around the scar. The scar remains. And onwards.
August 11, 2025 at 7:01 PM
And the anniversary itself. Six full years since my darling Matthew died. It’s so much easier now than the first years were. Nonetheless, I needed space, so I’ve been on a long walk in the Surrey Hills.
Grief softens. I’ve also grown around the scar. The scar remains. And onwards.
Grief softens. I’ve also grown around the scar. The scar remains. And onwards.
It’s the anticipation of the grief anniversaries that’s the hardest. Tomorrow will be 6 years since Matthew died. Yesterday felt brutal - I was swamped by all I’ve lost.‘I’m going to get bigger from this not smaller,’ I vowed 6 years ago. I have done. I’m proud of myself. But there’s so much loss.
August 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM
It’s the anticipation of the grief anniversaries that’s the hardest. Tomorrow will be 6 years since Matthew died. Yesterday felt brutal - I was swamped by all I’ve lost.‘I’m going to get bigger from this not smaller,’ I vowed 6 years ago. I have done. I’m proud of myself. But there’s so much loss.
Well - last night I did a sort-of speaker event, talking about many of the hard events of my past fifteen years and what it takes me to handle them.
‘You’re an emanator of light,’ I was told at the end, and then the follow up: ‘Have you thought of writing a book?’
(I may be doing just that.)
‘You’re an emanator of light,’ I was told at the end, and then the follow up: ‘Have you thought of writing a book?’
(I may be doing just that.)
August 1, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Well - last night I did a sort-of speaker event, talking about many of the hard events of my past fifteen years and what it takes me to handle them.
‘You’re an emanator of light,’ I was told at the end, and then the follow up: ‘Have you thought of writing a book?’
(I may be doing just that.)
‘You’re an emanator of light,’ I was told at the end, and then the follow up: ‘Have you thought of writing a book?’
(I may be doing just that.)
This was a big one to write:
A brilliant and moving article from @katejarmstrong.bsky.social on the impact of experiencing an accident in the mountains, complete with both insightful personal experience and advice for those going through the same things.
FEATURE: Returning to Climbing After an Accident
It's up there as a climber's worst-case scenario: a sunny day out on a straightforward Alpine route, when a big chunk of the mountain comes away, the falling rocks cut through the rope, and...
www.ukclimbing.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:18 AM
This was a big one to write:
Mountains last weekend. Scottish this time.
May 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Mountains last weekend. Scottish this time.
Well, in all the time I’ve been talking about The Book, the words I’ve used have been these: ‘if I can finish writing it’; and ‘if it gets an agent’; and ‘if it gets a publisher’; and ‘if people want to buy and read it’.
This week I reached a milestone: I signed with a fabulous agent.
On we go!
This week I reached a milestone: I signed with a fabulous agent.
On we go!
May 1, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Well, in all the time I’ve been talking about The Book, the words I’ve used have been these: ‘if I can finish writing it’; and ‘if it gets an agent’; and ‘if it gets a publisher’; and ‘if people want to buy and read it’.
This week I reached a milestone: I signed with a fabulous agent.
On we go!
This week I reached a milestone: I signed with a fabulous agent.
On we go!
London also blue today.
April 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
London also blue today.
London this morning. Full-on ‘green thought in a green shade’ vibes.
April 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM
London this morning. Full-on ‘green thought in a green shade’ vibes.
Well, I have weekend plans that involve train tickets to Fort William, a big rucksack, a tent, and the company of a very good friend. Forecast is a bit iffy, but I’m backing us for an excellent time.
April 29, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Well, I have weekend plans that involve train tickets to Fort William, a big rucksack, a tent, and the company of a very good friend. Forecast is a bit iffy, but I’m backing us for an excellent time.
Where was I this time last week?
April 14, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Where was I this time last week?
My wedding anniversary today - and I’m sitting reading poetry, and remembering, and feeling sad and also remarkably grateful, because Matthew and I had a lot, and I’m starting despite everything to do okay without him. (And this picture - of which I am very fond - is from my brother’s wedding.)
March 31, 2025 at 12:40 PM
My wedding anniversary today - and I’m sitting reading poetry, and remembering, and feeling sad and also remarkably grateful, because Matthew and I had a lot, and I’m starting despite everything to do okay without him. (And this picture - of which I am very fond - is from my brother’s wedding.)
Spring - and how very desperate I have been this year for it to arrive.
March 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Spring - and how very desperate I have been this year for it to arrive.