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
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.
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.
Mountains last weekend. Scottish this time.
May 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Mountains last weekend. Scottish this time.
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.
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.
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.)
March 14, 2025 at 5:28 PM
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.)
Matthew’s birthday today, and in the years since he died I’ve always posted a picture of him on this date.
And so:
Happy birthday, my love. Here you are lounging proprietorially on a Lake District peak back in 2006. Today you would have been 54.
And so:
Happy birthday, my love. Here you are lounging proprietorially on a Lake District peak back in 2006. Today you would have been 54.
January 19, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Matthew’s birthday today, and in the years since he died I’ve always posted a picture of him on this date.
And so:
Happy birthday, my love. Here you are lounging proprietorially on a Lake District peak back in 2006. Today you would have been 54.
And so:
Happy birthday, my love. Here you are lounging proprietorially on a Lake District peak back in 2006. Today you would have been 54.
And this morning looking over London
January 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
And this morning looking over London
Not mountains, but London has its moments as well.
January 7, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Not mountains, but London has its moments as well.
Helvellyn, including Striding Edge and Catstye Cam, in perfect winter light, from Fairfield, 2nd Jan 2025.
January 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Helvellyn, including Striding Edge and Catstye Cam, in perfect winter light, from Fairfield, 2nd Jan 2025.
Happy New Year from the Lake District, where the clouds and high winds did eventually clear - and this - THIS - was what was behind them. (Few things are as good as a clear winter day on the Fairfield Horseshoe.)
January 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Happy New Year from the Lake District, where the clouds and high winds did eventually clear - and this - THIS - was what was behind them. (Few things are as good as a clear winter day on the Fairfield Horseshoe.)
All best festive greetings, everyone - and for us all the hope of sunlight on the other side of the dark woods.
December 24, 2024 at 12:54 PM
All best festive greetings, everyone - and for us all the hope of sunlight on the other side of the dark woods.