Clint Willis has a new book out, The Boys of Everest, which was a finalist for the 2006 Banff Mountain Literature Award.
The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation is a story of tremendous courage, staggering achievement, and heart-breaking loss. Boningtonâ??s inner circleâ??they came to be known as Boningtonâ??s Boysâ??included a dozen of mountaineeringâ??s legendary figures and gave birth to a new brand of climbing. They took increasingly grave risks on expeditions to the worldâ??s most difficult peaks. And they paid an enormous price for their achievements. Most of them died in the mountains, leaving behind the hardest question of all: Was it worth it?
The Boys of Everest, based on extensive interviews with surviving climbers and other individuals as well as five decades of journals, films, photographs, expedition accounts, and letters, provides the closest thing to an answer that weâ??ll ever have. It offers riveting descriptions of what Bonington and his comrades found in the mountainsâ??as well as an understanding of what they lost there.
From the sample chapter (pdf) you can download on the site, The Boys of Everest looks to be a good read. More info can be found on the book’s website.
2 Comments
Hi guys
There’s a review in the New York Times today and another yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, check out more reviews on theboysofeverest.com. Thanks for spreading the word. It’s a climber’s book, by, for and about climbers–but armchair climbers seem to dig it as well.
Sorry for the shameless promotion. The book has been a labor of love and I want it to have whatever life it may deserve. It tells an important story, one climbers should know and remember.
Re that, thanks for being climbers. This world needs people who love the mountains and the crags.
“The Boys of Everest” is a non-fiction thriller but I am sharing a title I have just begun to read this week. “Murder on Everest” by Charles G. Irion is my first read on the topic of climbing. I used to be an avid climber, but age has caught up on me, preventing me from any of that, so now I want to start reading as much as I can about it. I heard about this series of fiction (Summit Murders) and thought that it might be a good jump off point for me. maybe I shouldn’t use the term “jump off” when talking about mountaineering huh?
Anyway, I will be covering my ‘reads’ in this series in a blog at hhtp://rayray-thedailyreader.blogspot.com if anyone wants to get involved in sharing some good reading. Would love to see you there.