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Kate Armstrong

@katejarmstrong.bsky.social

880 followers 450 following 110 posts

Writer. ‘The Storyteller' (2016; @PrizeRofC longlisted). In-progress book about grief, collapse, recovery, and big mountains. Bridport memoir award runner up. https://linktr.ee/beyondthemountain

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Mar 14

Delighted to say that I won Runner Up in the Bridport Prize Memoir Award. Five years of work and counting, but the book is coming along. (Also some excellent high skiing this week.)

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · 2h

Rightly!

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · 4h

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.)

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · 1d

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.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · 3d

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.

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Reposted by Kate Armstrong

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d

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.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

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

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Sep 11

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:

"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

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Aug 11

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.

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Aug 10

Thanks. I know you get it.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Aug 10

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.

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Aug 1

#summervibes

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Aug 1

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.)

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Jun 21

Properly hot in London - but I’m telling myself it’s good training/acclimatisation for a trip to the Alps next week!

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 29

I was so excited to read today’s BBC article about them now appearing regularly in the north of England.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 23

This was a big one to write:

The Alpine Club @alpineclub.bsky.social · May 19

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

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 9

Mountains last weekend. Scottish this time.

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 1

Thank you!
I’d still love to take up your offer to read it as and when (and assuming the offer still stands). In the meantime, I’m on a train to the Highlands, for a solo week of tent and summits. Hope Shropshire well.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 1

Glorious

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · May 1

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!

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 30

London also blue today.

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 30

London this morning. Full-on ‘green thought in a green shade’ vibes.

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 29

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.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 22

Dear god.

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 17

Lake District - just off the summit of Scafell Pike. (Such a gorgeous day that the summit itself was swarming with people, dogs and drones.)

Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Apr 14

Where was I this time last week?

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Kate Armstrong @katejarmstrong.bsky.social · Mar 31

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.)

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