Simon Mawer0.0 Rob and Jamie are great friends from childhood. They have grown up together and become top climbers, but have since become estranged. Rob is nevertheless amazed and grief-stricken when he hears of Jamie's death after a fall on a relatively easy Welsh rockface.
The past, though, hides the secret clues behind the tragedy. Layer by layer Simon Mawer peels back what happened, going not only into the friends' childhoods but that of their parents - who were also intimate. And there is no escaping that past - vividly imagined scenes in the London of the Blitz reveal how through two generations Rob and Jamie and their respective parents have been addicted - to desire and the heady dangers of climbing.
Brilliantly structured as we move from past to present and back again, this novel will make Simon Mawer's literary reputation.
Nicholas Wollaston0.0 Nicholas Wollaston was four years old when his father Sandy was killed in 1934—shot dead by one of his Cambridge students. In this memoir, 70 years on, Nicholas finally confronts his loss and goes in search of the father whom he hardly knew. Sandy Wollaston, doctor, botanist, explorer, lived in the last great age of discovery. On extraordinarily tough expeditions to New Guinea, the Sahara, and the Himalayas, he collected new flora and fauna of lasting importance; and in 1924, in tweeds and leather shoes, he accompanied Mallory on his first trip to Everest. My Father, Sandy is a son's tribute and a voyage of discovery—part memoir, part travel history, but above all a moving love story.
Robert Macfarlane4.0 Robert Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind is the most interesting of the crop of books published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest. Macfarlane is both a mountaineer and a scholar. Consequently we get more than just a chronicle of climbs. He interweaves accounts of his own adventurous ascents with those of pioneers such as George Mallory, and in with an erudite discussion of how mountains became such a preoccupation for the modern western imagination.
The book is organised around a series of features of mountaineering--glaciers, summits, unknown ranges--and each chapter explores the scientific, artistic and cultural discoveries and fashions that accompanied exploration. The contributions of assorted geologists, romantic poets, landscape artists, entrepreneurs, gallant amateurs and military cartographers are described with perceptive clarity. The book climaxes with an account of Mallory's fateful ascent on Everest in 1924, one of the most famous instances of an obsessive pursuit. Macfarlane is well-placed to describe it since it is one he shares.
MacFarlane's own stories of perilous treks and assaults in the Alps, the Cairngorms and the Tian Shan mountains between China and Kazakhstan are compelling. Readers who enjoyed Francis Spufford's masterly I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination will enjoy Mountains of the Mind. This is a slighter volume than Spufford's and it loses in depth what it gains in range, but for an insight into the moody, male world of mountaineering past and present it is invaluable. --Miles Taylor
Alexander Huber0.0 Yosemite Valley is Mecca of the climbing sports. Such legends of climbing as John Salathé, Royal Robbins, and Warren Harding have immortalized their names in the granite of the valley. The giant walls of El Capitan and Half Dome haven't lost their magic attraction to this day. Climbers from all over the world pilgrimage to Yosemite year-round to do a Big Wall, to attempt Midnight Lightning, the most famous boulder in the world, and to experience the flair of the past in legendary Camp 4. From the surveys of geologists in the 1860's to the "free speed" climbs of today, over 100 years of climbing history accompany a range of superb color landscape photos that echo the great traditions of the Ansel Adams and the Sierra Club large format books of the 1970s. Essays by well-known climbers Warren Harding, Royal Robbins, Jim Bridwell, Mark Chapman, Jerry Moffatt, John Long, Peter Croft, Lynn Hill, Thomas Huber, Dean Potter, and Leo Houlding illustrate the evolution in climbing equipment and varied techniques needed to ascend the rock peaks and amazing walls.
Ed Douglas0.0 Covering all the National Curriculum Framework objectives using a clearly structured and rigorous approach, Nelson Thornes Framework English offers an attractive and dynamic route through the demands of the Framework for Teaching English, Years 7-9, laying particular emphasis on the basic skills of English in order to raise standards in writing. Using a twin-track approach with a student text covering fiction and non-fiction, each book provides 18 units of themed stimulus texts plus differentiated activites at word, sentence and text levels to meet the requirements of the Framework. Encompassing a wide range of genres, styles and conventions, the activities allow for the incorporation of direct whole class teaching, group work and individual work placing emphasis on the development of extended writing.
George Band0.0 The summit of mountain expedition books, Everest packs in detailed accounts of the adventures and pitfalls of climbing the world's tallest mountain. It spans from the tragic early attempts to scale Mount Everest to the first success, led by John Hunt in 1953, and subsequent expeditions. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest, this fully-illustrated book features:
300 photographs, including previously unpublished pictures and astounding panorama shots of the Himalayas
Maps that demonstrate various routes to take when climbing Everest
Charts that indicate numbers of people who have attempted to climb Everest, including data on the number of deaths that have occurred
Insider perspective on how the team prepared for the first successful ascent
Published in association with the Mount Everest Foundation, the Alpine Club, and the Royal Geographical Society, Everest is written by George Band, who was the youngest member of Hunt's expedition team. Celebrate the triumphant conquering of Mount Everest in this gripping story.
