The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine

by Tom Holzel, Audrey Salkeld, Eric Simonson (Foreword)

On 8th June 1924 Geroge Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off from camp at 26,700 feet, bound for the summit of Everest. They were watched by Noel Odell who, in a famous despatch to The Times, described how the clouds parted to unveil the summit ridge and final peak of the roof of the world. He watched as the two black dots made towards the top, but after five minutes the clouds rolled in. They were never seen alive again.

Did Mallory and Irvine conquer Everest almost 30 years before Hillary and Tenzing? How did they die? Where they the Olympian heroes described by history? Was George Mallory - friend of Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant and Rupert Brooke - attempting some poetic ideal by choosing as his climbing partner the inexperienced young Irvine?

Genres: Mountaineering, Nonfiction, History, Adventure, Sports, Travel, Biography

395 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

I am fascinated by research which uncovers or recasts unknown events. Historical research "Girls Club Holiday House" discovered what local runes were in the forest of Washington, CT. My investigation of Ted Kennedy's tragedy at the Chappaquiddick bridge showed he was nowhere near the car when Mary Jo drove into the water. (He was walking back to the party.) And "Ballard's War" is an intensively researched WW-II what-if? thriller that depicts the hero trying to help Hitler win the war--for very strange reasons. If Ballard did something on Wednesday, Dec 12th, I would check the calendar to make sure December 12th really was a Wednesday!

The point is that with complicated plots--the most interesting--everything has to work out naturally (no Deus ex machina!). The result, at least for me, is the satisfaction like that which comes with a perfect five-course dinner.