'Mick Conefrey's Fallen is a marvellously researched and written story about the enigma of George Mallory and the fulfilment of his "Because it's there!"' Peter Hillary



'Mick Conefrey's gripping account explores the 1924 expedition and the enigma of the man who nearly made it to the summit.' Financial Times



'Mick Conefrey has become one of our finest gazetteers of the Himalaya.' The Spectator

In the years following his disappearance, George Mallory was elevated into an all-British hero - handsome, charismatic and daring, he was the 'Galahad' of Everest, who had died while taking on the ultimate challenge. But he was also a risk taker who could never get behind the wheel of a car without overtaking the vehicle in front; a climber who pushed himself and those around him to the limits; and a chaotic technophobe who was forever losing equipment or mishandling it, putting himself and his colleagues in danger.



Based on diaries, letters, memoirs and thousands of contemporary documents, Fallen is a forensic account of Mallory's last expedition to Everest in 1924, as well as an attempt to get to know the real Mallory; to get under his skin, understand the forces that made him and destroyed him and separate the man from the myth. Lire la suite Fermer

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BEST SPORTS WRITING BOOK OF THE YEAR*



Though it remains by far the world's most famous mountain, in recent years Everest's reputation has changed radically, with long queues of climbers on the Lhotse Face, lurid tales of frozen corpses and piles of high altitude trash. It wasn't always like this though. Once Everest was remote and inaccessible, a mysterious place, where only the bravest and most heroic dared to tread.



The first attempt on Everest in 1922 by George Leigh Mallory and a British team is an extraordinary story full of controversy, drama and incident, populated by a set of larger than life characters straight out of Boys Own and Indiana Jones. The expedition ended in tragedy when, on their third bid for the top, Mallory's party was hit by an avalanche that left seven men dead.



Using diaries, letters, published and unpublished accounts, Mick Conefrey creates a rich character driven narrative, exploring the motivations and private dramas of key individuals and detailing the back room politics and bitter rivalries that lay behind this epic adventure. Lire la suite Fermer