Full of Myself by Johnny Dawes. What can you say? No matter what you think of Johnny it has to be said that he is a legend in his own lifetime!
Complex, brilliant, annoying, talented, difficult, pages of adjectives could be thrown down to describe the man that is and you still wouldn't get close to pinning him down. Without question, to most, he is an enigma. For years now he has been dropping into V12 for coffee while regaling to any that would listen, sentences, paragraphs and if time permitted, chapters of the work in progress. To be honest most of us thought it would never get done but then there is the mystery that is Johnny. He proved all us doubters wrong. I'm glad that he did.

Praise for the man and book from Leo Houlding... 'Johnny Dawes is the enigmatic front man of an eclectic band of British climbers who in the mid 1980's redefined the standards of difficulty and danger in traditional climbing. Introducing the world to the impossible grades of E8 & E9, and laying the foundations of the modern scene, Johnny's unique style and character have become legend. This long awaited book gives his take on a highly influential period of climbing history and a look inside the mind of a tormented genius. Written with devoted passion and brutal honesty, Full of Myself lays bare Johnny's bipolar mix of privilege and pain, wizardry and dysfunction. Master of friction and maestro of momentum on rock and road, orchestrator of contemporary climbing techniques such as the dead-point and dyno, the living embodiment of poetry in motion turns his hand to the pen with great effect.'

Ed Douglas adds... 'Johnny Dawes is a legend in British climbing. In 1986, he was responsible for the most inspired new route in a generation, when he climbed Indian Face on Clogwyn d'ur Arddu in Snowdonia. Difficult and tenuous, a fall from its hardest move would most likely be fatal. But Dawes is much more than a risk-taker. His rich imagination has left a legacy of outstanding new routes all over the country, not least on the gritstone edges of Derbyshire where his bold and fluid style reached its fullest expression. He's an artist really, a choreographer with a warrior spirit.'

And from Simon Beaufoy (Academy Award winning screenwriter of The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire)... 'Each generation produces a handful of visionaries, people who can see beyond the possible. Whether he likes it or not, Johnny is climbing's visionary. There are accounts of terrifying first-ascents on crumbling sea cliffs and even more terrifying accounts of van-driving around Wales. At the heart of the book is a man traversing on crystals towards some kind of understanding of who he is, a man less earth-bound than us climbing mortals, but who cannot, quite, fly. Much like his climbing, his imagination leaps - this is a beautiful book about an extraordinary person. William Blake with sticky boots'