June 19, 2013

Taking a love story to new heights

Legendary mountaineer inspires Toronto writer’s debut novel

Michelle Singerman
Tanis Rideout has garnered significant acclaim for her debut novel

Tanis Rideout has garnered significant acclaim for her debut novel

Toronto writer Tanis Rideout first heard about the exploits of the late legendary mountain climber George Mallory while working at an outdoor sporting goods store in the city. It scared her just thinking about his adventures on the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest. But what really piqued her interest was the thought of what Mallory’s wife, Ruth, must have been going through. Rideout’s interest in the love story behind the mountain adventures inspired her debut novel, Above All Things.

“Everest sort of pinpoints for me a lot of things that scare me and that I don’t understand,” she says. “I hate the cold. And I didn’t understand why people would put themselves through that type of thing.” But she quickly found herself consumed by the romanticism of it all.

“I would joke around with my friends and say, ‘You know, if it’s possible to be in love with somebody who’s been dead for 80-some-odd years, then I think I am,’ ” she says.

This work of historical fiction was 10 years in the making and it began with casual research and a heartfelt interest. After the second draft, she went to England for some hands-on research, jumping from the Royal Geographical Society to the Alpine Club to Cambridge University, reviewing original documents and letters sent between Mallory and his wife.

“It was pretty emotional to sort of go in there those first days,” says Rideout. “These were real events that happened to real people at one point in time that I was sort of taking on.”

Though Above All Things is Rideout’s first novel, she published a poetry collection in 2005 and was named Poet Laureate of Lake Ontario by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in 2006.

Instead of traditional tales of harrowing mountaineering that usually follow the name George Mallory, she wanted Ruth to be central to her novel, so Rideout focused less on historical accounts and instead created a love story.

“I just thought she had to be more complicated and more interesting than that, because he is such a tremendously charismatic character and they seem very much in love when you read their letters,” Rideout says.

“I wanted to explore her and her world and also how much you support your partner in the crazy things that they want to set out to do. It sort of became a love triangle between George and Ruth and the mountain.”

Rideout reads from her novel on Dec. 5 at the Press Club in Toronto as part of the Pivot Reading Series. For more information on the book, go to tanisrideout.wordpress.com.

This article appears in the December 2012 issue of Post City Magazines