Learning to breathe

At the age of sixteen, Andy Cave followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps and became a miner - one of the last recruits into a dying world.

Every day he would descend 3,000 feet into Grimethorpe pit.

But at weekends Andy escaped from the pithead to a very different world - testing his nerve on the cliffs and mountains around Britain, and forging endearing friendships with his new companions.

Enduring the 1984-85 miners' strike - the guilt, the broken friendships, the poverty - Andy continued to indulge his passion.

In 1986, after much soul searching, he quit his job as a miner in order to devote himself to mountaineering.

At the same time he decided to educate himself, acquiring almost from a standing start academic qualifications including a PhD in socio-linguistics.

This extraordinary twin odyssey is graphically recalled in this remarkable book.

In the Himalaya in 1997, Andy achieved a courageous first ascent on one of the steepest and most difficult summits in the world - the north face of Changabang.

Seventeen days later, he and only two of his team-mates crawled into base camp, frostbitten, emaciated and traumatised. His account of this terrifying experience provides a dramatic climax to this compelling story. "Learning to Breathe" is, first and foremost, a lively and humorous memoir, written with energy and insight, about two very different groups of people, each navigating equally inhospitable worlds.

Finally on a larger scale, it is an examination of our ability to draw on inner reserves and the strength of others.