Gwen Moffat

Moffat was an Army driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, stationed in North Wales after the end of the Second World War, when she met a climber who introduced her to climbing and a bohemian lifestyle.[2][3] During the 1940s and 1950s she lived rough, climbing in Snowdonia, the Lakes, Scotland and the Alps, supporting herself by working in several roles including as a domestic service, a farmer, a forester, an artist's model and the driver of a travelling shop.[3][2] In 1953 she became the first female British certificated mountain guide, and for ten years she was closely associated with the RAF Mountain Rescue Service, making a living from climbing.[4]

Moffatt was known for often climbing barefoot, claiming that it was better because there was more contact with the rock and no constriction of the toes.[5] She is an honorary member of the women-only Pinnacle Club and the British Mountaineering Council.[6]

Moffat featured in the BBC film Eye to Eye, broadcast in 1958.[7] Joe Brown did the hard amateur climbing and Moffat, the professional, took her husband up a route on Idwal Slabs.[7] In 2015 Jen Randall and Claire Carter made a film, Operation Moffat, based on Moffat's autobiographical book Space below my Feet[8]. The film was premiered during Banff Mountain Film Festival's UK tour,[9] and has won over 20 international film awards.[10] Moffat is included in Herrington's photographic work The Climbers[11][12] featuring 60 climbers considered legends of the 20th century. In 2017 she contributed to a documentary Give Me Space Below My Feet, for BBC Radio 3.[13]

Moffat began her writing career in the 1950s, working for BBC radio, and published her autobiography in 1961.[3] In the 1970s, she started writing crime fiction, in particular the Miss Pink series featuring Melinda Pink, a middle aged climber and magistrate.[14][15] Following a commission by Victor Gollancz Ltd to follow the California Trail[16] and produce a book, she subsequently wrote 11 mysteries set in the American West.[17] She wrote her last novel, Gone Feral, when she was in her 80s. She currently reviews for the crime magazine Shots.[17]

Moffat married Gordon Moffat with whom she had a daughter, Sheena, born in 1949. In 1955, Moffat married Flight Sergeant John Lees, GM, BEM. They were divorced in 1970.[18][7]

• Space Below my Feet (1961)[3]
• Two Star Red (1964)
• On My Home Ground (1968)
• Survival Count (1972)
• Deviant Death (1973)
• Lady with a Cool Eye (Melinda Pink) (1973)
• The Corpse Road (1974).
• Hard Option (1975)
• Miss Pink at the Edge of the World (Melinda Pink) (1975)
• A Short Time to Live (Melinda Pink) (1976)
• Over the Sea to Death (Melinda Pink) (1976)
• Persons Unknown (Melinda Pink) (1978)
• Hard Road West (1981)
• Die Like a Dog (Melinda Pink) (1982)
• The Buckskin Girl (1982)
• Last Chance Country (Melinda Pink) (1983)
• Grizzly Trail (Melinda Pink) (1984)
• Snare (Melinda Pink) (1987)
• The Stone Hawk (Melinda Pink) (1989)
• The Storm Seekers (1989)
• Rage (Melinda Pink) (1990)
• The Raptor Zone (Melinda Pink) (1990)
• Pit Bull (1991)
• Veronica's Sisters (Melinda Pink) (1992)
• The Outside Edge (1993)
• Cue the Battered Wife (1994)
• A Wreath of Dead Moths (1998)
• The Lost Girls (Melinda Pink) (1998)
• Private Sins (Melinda Pink) (1999)
• Running Dogs (1999)
• Quicksand (2001)
• Retribution (Melinda Pink) (2002)
• Man Trap (2003)
• Dying for Love (2005)
• Gone Feral (2007)