GORDON STAINFORTH
BA(Hons), MA(RCA), ARPS, FRGS
Royal Institute of Philosophy

Writer, Photographer, and Film and Music Editor

This page is out of date. Please go to: Updated CV

Gordon Stainforth was born (a twin) in 1949 in Welwyn Garden City, England. With his brother, at the age of 16, after an intense period making radio-controlled model aircraft, he discovered two of his greatest interests, photography (which was soon to blossom into movie-making with an 8mm film camera while still at school) and climbing.

On family holidays to Zermatt in 1966 and 1967 Gordon and John climbed their first alpine peaks. In 1969 they made an ascent of the very long and dangerous 'Fiva Route' in Romsdal in Norway, an escapade that nearly cost them their lives. The next year they were both climbing Extremes in North Wales: they both led the classic 'Cenotaph Corner', separately, on the same day. (Gordon continued climbing for 35 years until the onset of a serious eye problem in April 2007 - a 'macular pucker' - caused him to call it quits. Some pictures of his climbing career can be found in his UKClimbing photogallery).

Meanwhile, at Cardiff University in 1969, Gordon had found his most enduring interest, philosophy, for which he gained a first class honours degree in 1972. Despite the understandable protestations of his tutors, he then went to London and studied film and television at the renowned Royal College of Art Film School, here obtaining an MA.

Film industry

One of Gordon's first professional film jobs, while still at film school, was as a clapper-loader with the Oscar-winning cameraman Walter Lassally in 1973. Then, from 1975-85 he worked as a freelance Assistant Film Editor, initially in television and then in the film industry.

His biggest break came in 1979 when he joined Stanley Kubrick's The Shining at Elstree Studios as an Assistant Editor. When Ray Lovejoy, the Editor, fell ill in the final stages of the production in the following year, Gordon cut the last 30 minutes of the film, working directly with Kubrick. (Listen to Kubrick directing Shelley Duval.) He then worked as the Music Editor, laying all the avant-garde music for the movie, which has now become something of a cult (see this website). There is also an interview with Gordon about it. See also 'The Shining music acclaim' in the left-hand menu. He then went on to cut the BBC television documentary, Making The Shining, directed by Vivian Kubrick (Stanley's daughter). After that, he worked as First Assistant Editor on five other major movies (see below), and Music Editor for James Horner (Titanic, Avatar, etc.) on The Dresser.

Main film credits

1972 Drive into Europe (dir: Peter Ormrod). Film Editor.
Documentary for the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

1973 Requiem for a Village (dir: David Gladwell). Assistant Cameraman. A BFIProduction

1974 This Game of Golf (dir: Mike Raeburn, ph: Walter Lassally), featuring Sean Connery. Assistant Cameraman.

Haunting Storm (dir: Mike Hall). Assistant Cameraman.
Part of a V & A Museum exhibition on film special effects.

1975 Horizons (dir: Peter Ormrod). Film Editor.
A short film shown on BBC2 Premiere series, featuring extraordinary aerial footage in an aerobatic biplane.

1976 Rachel and the Beelzebub Bombadiers (dir: Peter Ormrod). Sound Recordist.
A Southern Arts Council Film, shown on BBC2.

1977 The Crisis Inside (producer: John Penycate, reporter: Tom Mangold). Assistant Editor.
A four-part BBC series about our prisons.

Remote Britain (producer: Keith Hulse). Assistant Editor.
A series of six films for BBC Nationwide.

1978 Terror International (producer: John Penycate, reporter: Tom Mangold). Assistant Editor.
A two-part BBC Panorama Special on international terrorism.

The Real War in Space (producer: John Penycate, reporter: Tom Mangold). Assistant Editor.
A two-part BBC Panorama Special about the nuclear arms race.

High Hopes. Associate Producer.
A BBC South-West documentary about Norman Croucher, the outstanding double-leg amputee mountaineer.

1979 Peru, Bolivia (reporter: Jonathan Dimbleby). Assistant Editor.
Thames TV six-part series on South America.

1979-80 The Shining (dir: Stanley Kubrick, ed: Ray Lovejoy). Warner Bros. Assistant Editor and Music Editor.

1980 Making the Shining (dir: Vivian Kubrick, prod: Alan Yentob). Editor.
BBC Arena Special

1981 Churchill, The Wilderness Years (dir: Ferdinand Fairfax)
Southern Pictures for ITV. Assistant Dialogue Editor.
A seven-part drama-documentary starring Robert Hardy.

1982 Krull (dir: Peter Yates, ed: Ray Lovejoy). Columbia Pictures. First Assistant Editor.

1983 The Dresser (dir: Peter Yates, ed: Ray Lovejoy). Columbia Pictures. First Assistant Editor and Music Editor for James Horner (Titanic, Avatar, etc.)

The Neverending Story (dir: Wolfgang Petersen) Warner Bros.
Made at Bavaria Film Studios, Munich. Assistant Optical Effects Editor

1984 Sheena, (dir: John Guillermin, ed: Ray Lovejoy.) Columbia Pictures. Made on location in Kenya. Associate Editor

1985 Legend, (dir: Ridley Scott.) Universal Pictures. American re-cut. English Associate Editor

1986 Legend Promotional Video (dir: Tim Pope). Universal Pictures. Consultant Editor

Media, writing and philosophy since 1986

In 1985/6, when the Film Industry went into a periodic decline, Gordon began to concentrate on still photography and writing. In November 1985 he won the Mountain Landscape Photography competition at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, and this encouraged him to begin his series of four award-winning, bestselling mountain landscape books:

1991 Eyes to the Hills

1992 Lakeland: Landscape of Imagination

1994 The Cuillin

1998 The Peak: Past and Present

In this period Gordon exhibited his photographic work at a wide range of venues including the National Museum of Photography in Bradford and the Barbican Centre in London. He has also lectured extensively, notably to the Royal Photographic Society, the Alpine Club, the World Wildlife Fund, the Ruskin Society, and the John Muir Trust, as well as at mountaineering literature festivals in Buxton, Ambleside, Llandudno, Wakefield, and Banff (in Canada).

Also during this period Gordon won many prizes and awards for his work:

1989, 1990 ARPS, FRGS

1992 The Thomas Cook Illustrated Travel Book Award for Eyes to the Hills

1994 The Banff Mountain Book Festival Best Book of Mountain Images for The Cuillin

1995 The Outdoor Writers' Guild Award for Excellence for The Cuillin

1999 The Peak: Past and Present shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award

2000 The Peak: Past and Present shortlisted for the Portico Prize.

In 1998 Gordon began a long term philosophical project, very provisionally called The Secret Meaning of Mountains.

1999 Photographic trips to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite , Zion and Joshua Tree in America, and to the Everest region of Nepal doing photographic work for World Expeditions.

Contributed to The Stanley Kubrick Companion by James Howard.

Lectured at a 3-day Robin Hood Symposium, Robin Hood of the Peak, at Nottingham University.

2000 - 2001 Worked on the umpteenth draft of a Science Fiction novel: Heven Haven (working title) and continued researching his philosophy book

In the summer of 2001, after the end of the devastating outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, Gordon made a 145-mile circular walk of the Peak District in 12 days, starting and finishing in Derby, The Peak Grand Tour

2002 Turpin, screenplay for Producer David Rose

Book sales of Gordon's mountain hardbacks topped 43,000

2003 Revised Heven Haven (working title) for Tor Books, New York

Activity Britain. Directed five short videos on outdoor activities for Visit Britain

Wild Britain. Directed two television test promos for the BBC, with Brian Blessed and Rebecca Stephens as presenters

2004 The Owl and the Cragrat, an anthology of climbing poems. Project Director and Co-Editor (with Marc Chrysanthou)

Continued research work for his philosophy book, now provocatively called What's the Matter with the Matterhorn?

2005 The Crux: 150 years of British climbing in 25 images. Compiled and designed the 25th anniversary photographic exhibition for the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. For further details see Kendal Mountain Arts.

Expanded web design business activities.

2006 Collaborated with Jeremy Barham of the University of Surrey, Department of Music, on the paper Incorporating Monsters: Music as Context, Character and Construction in Kubrick's The Shining.

Worked in the Lake District with Griff Rhys Jones on part of the BBC series Mountains.

The Crux photographic exhibition was at the Alpine Club in London.

2007 Appeared in two BBC TV series: Balderdash & Piffle and Mountains with Griff Rhys Jones.

In November, gave an hour-long presentation at the Ritz Cinema in Belper about his work editing the music score of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

The Crux exhibition was at the National Mountaineering Exhibition in Cumbria and the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival.

Continued research work on his philosophy project, now simply called Ideas Come First

2008 In March, Gordon was a judge at the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, and also interviewed the renowned mountaineer Joe Simpson on stage before a packed audience.

In November, Gordon visited Sir Roger Penrose in Oxford in connection with his ongoing philosophy project.

2009 In April Gordon introduced Stanley Kubrick's The Shining at the Sensoria festival of Music and Film, in Sheffield.

In July, Gordon, with his twin brother John, returned to Romsdal in Norway, exactly 40 years after their very close shave on the mile-high Fiva Route on Store Trolltind, as part of the research for Gordon's next book project.

2010 The main work of the year was the completion and revision of the manuscript of Gordon's latest book Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong which will be published in March 2012.

2011 While 'Fiva' was in the final stages of design and typesetting, Gordon made six major research trips to a wide range of aerodromes, museums and archives in southern England for his next book, a biography, George: The Fastest Man in the Air. He already has a major publisher interested in the project.

2012 The year was dominated by the success of Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong (See website). From modest beginnings it went on to win universal accolades, 35 straight 5-star reviews on Amazon, and the biggest prize in the world: the Best Book of Mountain and Wilderness Literature at the Banff Mountain Festival. Gordon was involved throughout the year in the marketing and promotion of the book.

2013 The first half of the year was spent with the continued promotion of 'Fiva'. In July Gordon returned with his brother John to the Norwegian Mountain Festival in Romsdal. He then continued to research his next book, a biography, now called The Nine Lives of George Stainforth, about the first man to fly over 400 mph.

2014 The year was almost entirely taken up with further research, and writing the first 200 pages of the first draft of The Nine Lives of George Stainforth.