About us

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 by 2010 there were 24 titles in print, several on their 2nd or 3rd editions. 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. Four ascents of Kili (each by a different route) and other high-altitude trekking 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).

You can listen here to Mark Stephen's 6-minute radio interview with Jacquetta: Out of Doors on 10.2.07. There was a feature about her 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. The team of Rucksack Readers authors now numbers about 15.

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. Rucksack Readers has been a Registered Trade Mark since August 2009.