View From The Summit

Description

'Sir Edmund, he's worshipped, you know, as a god among the Sherpas.' Jamling Tenzing. The first man to set foot on the summit of Everest, the man who led a team of tractors to the South Pole, the man who jetboated up the Ganges from the ocean to the sky has, for the first time, gathered all the remarkable adventures of a long life into one volume. But there is more to Ed Hillary than this. He is also the man who repaid his debt of fame to the Himalayas by inaugurating a programme of school, clinic, airstrip and bridge-building in Nepal which, with his still active support, has gone from strength to strength over the four decades since he himself mastered the Hillary Step and led his companion Tenzing Norgay up Everest's final summit ridge. View from the Summit is a thoughtful and honest reappraisal of a life spent pushing human ability to its limits and relishing the challenges thrown down by the elements. It is also the story of a man whom the world has taken to its heart.

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand and served in the New Zealand Air Force during the Second World War. Knighted for his ascent of Everest in 1953, he achieved many more adventuring 'firsts' before establishing the Himalayan Trust, an organization devoted to improving the lives of people living in the Himalayas. He has two surviving children by his first wife, Louise, who died tragically in a plane crash with their third child, Belinda. He then married June, widow of his Antarctic partner Pete Mulgrew. Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary lived in Auckland until his death in 2008.

'Sterling stuff...You can only stand back and gape in admiration' * Sunday Star Time (NZ) * 'Unavoidably gripping...gives an excellent sense of the constant risk when climbing at high altitude' * Sunday Telegraph * 'One of the most marvellous lives of our time' * Literary Review * 'A great read from a writer of remarkable ability' * The Times * 'View from the Summit is a memorable read, the tale of a true survivor, who not only overcame the hazards of Everest but put the fame this brought him to remarkable use' * Mail on Sunday *