Today, down jackets built for K2 are worn on the school run and premium waterproofs pop up in pubs. In their photo book, Max Leonard and Henry Iddon track down hard-as-nails but unheralded mountaineers and the fabric innovators who put them safely – and sometimes even stylishly – on summits to ask how we got here

Bob Cooper of Macclesfield, Cheshire remembers: From an early age, I have always loved reading and writing. My best subject at school was English to the detriment of maths, and I managed to become top

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land

The situation looks chaotic in this mid-Eighties dash for the Channel – but there are plenty of vehicles to keep classic car-spotters occupied

Hannah Betts prefers parading pelts to donning dun uniforms

→ Three per cent of rough sleepers are veterans. According to our latest vendor survey the figure is the same for Big Issue sellers who have previously served in the armed forces. As Remembrance Day a