Rucksack Readers is the only specialist publisher of books for long-distance walkers in the UK, perhaps in the world. Jacquetta Megarry founded it in 2000 to create guidebooks in
a rucksack-friendly format. On her first long-distance walk, the West Highland Way, she had found the traditional design of guidebook impractical, and began to devise a waterproof, lightweight, open-flat format with built-in map.
After summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, she put her idea into production and there were 17 titles by mid-2008 with 3 more on the way. Her experience on an Aconcagua expedition in 2003 led her to devise the Rucksack Pocket Summits series for climbers of the world's continental summits. Three ascents of Kili plus other high-altitude hiking deepened her interest in preventing and managing altitude sickness. Rucksack Readers sponsored the Xtreme Everest project. Jacquetta was one of 200+ volunteers to complete a trek to Everest Base Camp, including daily testing and a full battery of medical tests at five altitudes from sea level to 5300 m (17,225 ft).
In late April 2008, she was interviewed online by Vulpes Libris. You can also listen here to Mark Stephen's 6-minute radio interview with Jacquetta: Out of Doors on 10.2.07 or read the feature in the Scotsman (17.2.07, Magazine p.38).
She works with a talented core team based in central Scotland: Ian Clydesdale (WorkHorse) for design of the books and pages and Dan Champion for website design. Mary McCallum manages stock, finances and website sales from the Dunblane base, and UK distribution is through Booksource. Rucksack Readers authors now also include Sandra Bardwell, Roy Davies, Harry Kikstra, Gareth McCormack, Rennie McOwan, Roly Smith (editor) and Jim Strachan.
Jacquetta welcomes contact with customers. Normally, she replies personally to suggestions: please send any ideas (about the books, the website or future titles) by email. She began her blog in March 2007.
For more information about Rucksack Readers, please visit our News archive.
| Scotland | Ireland | Worldwide | Pocket Summits | Literature |
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