The first half of Echoes is stunningly revealing, painting a picture of a man full of paradoxes slowly getting to grips with living a life that was almost totally unfulfilling and how in one "eureka" moment he discovered not just an escape from the horrors of working in a prison but his true "calling". In this first half of Echoes Bullock takes the lid off life inside a Category A Prison in a way Ross Kemp would be proud of and you see him battle not just inmates but his own growing hatred of the world he was living in and how he starts to question the values of a "normal" life. The honesty of these chapters is frightening and riveting, the kind of book that keeps you up long into the night turning pages and then keeps you awake with thoughts of the physical and mental demons the author faced.

Bit by bit climbing takes over the authors life, or at least his reason for living, for working and for surviving the daily battles, and the second half of the book is dominated by his climbing and mountaineering. Classic routes flow from the pages like an unstoppable avalanche. From Dinas Cromlech to the Alps, Ben Nevis to the Andes it's like an encyclopediaq of dream routes, sometimes hitting you so fast it's had to take in the enormity of the achievements. With 20 expeditions and 50 alpine routes behind him Nick Bullock is a man of the mountains, climbing with the likes of  Jules Cartwright, Al Powell, Kenton Cool and Andy Houseman but he's equally at home on the classic rock routes of Snowdonia. What marks out Nick Bullock, however, is not just his experience but how he gained that experience and how he climbs. In the foreword Paul Pritchard descibes Bullock as "a fucking nutter" and it's a title few would disagree with - perhaps even the author himself. Through the pages of Echoes you discover the internal battles the author faces to climb "his way" and why for him there will never be any other way. Epics on Orion Face and mountains in far flung lands fly off the pages but through it all emerges an athlete of Olympic class dedication who's found that escape only matters if you live every second. He may be full of paradoxes; dismissing grades one minute enticed by them the next, understanding and almost forgiving one day authoritarian the next, but he's a man of ultimate honesty at the same time and above all he's free!

Why "Echoes"?

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