Description
Book SynopsisDon Whillans has an iconic significance for generations of climbers. His epoch-making first ascent of Annapurna''s South Face, achieved with Dougal Haston in 1970, remains one of the most impressive climbs ever made - but behind this and all his other formidable achievements lies a tough, recalcitrant reality: the character of the man himself.
Whillans carried within himself a sense of personal invincibility, forceful, direct and uncompromising. It gave him sporting superstar status - the flawed heroism of a Best, a McEnroe, an Ali. In his own circle, his image was the working-class hero on the rock-face, laconic and bellicose, ready to go to war with the elements or with any human who crossed his path on a bad day.
Trade ReviewA packed and entertaining book . . . Exhaustively researched and beautifully written -- M. John Harrison * The Guardian *
Wonderfully crafted . . . One of the most gifted chroniclers of mountaineering . . . Perrin records it all with a subtle sympathy, laying bare British mountaineering's most mythologized figure * The Independent *
An extraordinarily rich and unsentimental vision . . . The genius of this exceptional biography is that it articulates both sides of Whillans' character . . . It is by turns funny and tragic . . . This is a fine book. It was worth the wait * Climb *
Compelling, beautifully written . . . There could not have been a better writer qualified to tell it -- Ed Douglas * Climber *
A kind of modern tragedy . . . Yet for all his failings, Whillans remains a legend * Observer *
