One of the seminal moments of my life was at 16. I discovered the mountains. On a visit to my grandfather in Dublin I climbed one of the Wicklow hills you could see from his back garden. Then the train back to England took me round the north of Snowdonia. The sight really caught my imagination – I remember looking into the valleys between the mountains and wondering what was at the end of the valley. I persuaded a school friend, Anton, to come with me and climb Snowdon. We tried to climb it without any of the proper gear and we were avalanched off and slid quite a long way. Fortunately we weren’t killed. I found this incredibly exciting and exhilarating; Anton found it anything but. I knew I’d found the thing I loved. I just am a natural climber.
My dad [one of the first SAS recruits Charles Bonington] left us when I was a baby. He was quite a wild man. He fell in love, got married quickly, then I arrived very soon and there was a huge row [his mother hit his father with a poker]. Then he left. Mygrandmother brought me up for a while when my mum was working as a copywriter, but there were disagreements between them and in the end my mum took me and looked after me entirely. Actually, she pushed Nan right out of it.
I’m not good at dinner parties when there are seven or eight people I don’t know. I clam up.
I remember finding that confusing. My mum treated me like an adult. She was a terrific mother but she had a nervous breakdown when her next relationship [with a leftist female journalist] broke up, and my nan stepped back in. I was quite a shy child. Being a single-parent family was quite hard in the 1940s and that probably made me more shy. I’m still a bit like that – I’m not good at dinner parties when there are seven or eight people I don’t know. I clam up. But I have some very close friends, I’m not a loner.
I get so much out of climbing. There’s the athletic enjoyment of doing something very well. Then there’s the element of risk, the thing that excited me when we got caught in that avalanche – the idea that if you let go, you’ll die. That can be addictive. Also the sense of exploring, discovering a new route, the boost to the ego, the joy of going somewhere no one else has gone.
And the moment of euphoria when you reach the summit, especially if you’ve been climbing for days.
I do need maps but I love wild country. And the moment of euphoria when you reach the summit, especially if you’ve been climbing for days. You spend six weeks working your way up Everest, having just one view. Then when you get to the top you suddenly have this incredible. 360-degree view. That is something special. I’m an atheist but I do feel the wonder of being in the midst of great beauty.
I met my wife Wendy at a Twelfth Night party. Before that I’d had a few relationships but never to the point of living together. In fact none in which I actually fell in love. I sometimes used to wonder, will I ever find someone I can love and be loved by? Then I was at this party, and I asked this girl to dance. And we just clicked.