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Chargement... The Moth and the Mountain: A True Story of Love, War, and Everest (2020)par Ed Caesar
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Clear and concise if a bit drawn out. Good elaboration on viability and quality of source materials. ( ) A truly compelling and tragic piece of investigative non-fiction writing, this was a story I shall not forget in a hurry. Ed Caesar has done an excellent job in picking up the scattered pieces of a life previously reported mostly incompletely, and compiling a fascinating tale of derring-do, romance, naïveté, and adventure. Maurice Wilson was a veteran British Army officer of the First World War. Awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during a rearguard battle of the great German Spring Offensive of 1918, one cannot help but wonder how this courageous man’s life might have turned out but for that life-shaping battlefield trauma. A lower middle-class lad from Bradford, Caesar conveys a sense of Wilson’s desire to fit in somewhere in life. He was likely categorised by his contemporaries as “a temporary gentleman”, due to the nature of his wartime commission, and there is certainly a restlessness about Wilson as he chases one elaborate dream after another. Undoubtedly, in the 21st century Wilson would have been diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. Through failed marriages and failed business enterprises, the reader accompanies him to New Zealand, Australia, Africa and north America, as he pursues something that he is never quite successful at achieving. All until he catches Everest fever in the 1920s, in the wake of the doomed Mallory-Irvine expedition of 1924 that captured the attention of so many. As the roaring 1920s turn into the depression era 1930s, and our protagonist embarks on a highly unconventional ménage-a-trois type relationship with his friends the Evans; Wilson discovers his ‘spiritual’ path - and embraces the romantic notion of flying an airplane to India: to land on the lower foothills near Mt Everest; and then to climb the ascent to the fabled mountain whilst achieving eternal glory as the first man to do so. The problem is, Wilson doesn’t know how to fly, and doesn’t know how to climb mountains. Undaunted, he sets about achieving this very thing. There follows an incredible but undoubtedly captivating account of this unlikely adventure, and the reader is swept along with the excitement and daring of the whole somewhat crazy enterprise. Will certainly make for a thrilling film topic one day. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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"In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Mount Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceives his own crazy, beautiful plan: he will fly a plane from England to Everest, crash-land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit--all utterly alone. Wilson doesn't know how to climb. He barely knows how to fly. But he has the right plane, the right equipment, and a deep yearning to achieve his goal. In 1933, he takes off from London in a Gipsy Moth biplane with his course set for the highest mountain on earth. Wilson's eleven-month journey to Everest is wild: full of twists, turns, and daring. Eventually, in disguise, he sneaks into Tibet. His icy ordeal is just beginning."--Amazon. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)796.522092The arts Recreational and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Outdoor leisure Exploring geological features Mountains, hills and rocks History, geographic treatment, biographyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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