Killing Dragons by Fergus Fleming

Killing Dragons by Fergus Fleming

"Here be dragons" said the old maps. In the late-18th century, a few brave men started to venture up the mountains of Switzerland to discover the secrets hidden in their snowy peaks. They took with them wine and brandy, wore ordinary shoes and had no protective clothing. Then the British arrived: a gallery of strange, obsessive explorers bent on conquering every Alpine summit. "Mountaineering" was born. This is a history of the conquest of the Alps.

The challenge for an author in creating a history of alpine exploration is to convey to the reader the sense of danger and excitement involved in mountaineeringFleming has the measure of the task and this is an epic piece of non-fiction that has all the exuberance of the best thrillers. The old maps famously bore the legend "here be dragons", and in the late 18th century, a few brave men began to ascend the mountains of Switzerland to discover their secrets. These hardy mountaineers who relied on wine and brandy (but wore no special protective clothing) were succeeded by the obsessive British explorers who were bent on conquering every Alpine summit. As an account of the conquest of the Alps, Fleming's book is both as exciting as one would expect and also very funny. The eccentricities of these often foolhardy explorers makes for often very surprising reading.

Fergus Fleming has written another wonderful book about heroic eccentrics. Reviewing his best-selling Barrows Boys, one of the surprises of 1999, Barry Unsworth instructed his audience Get hold of this book and read it.'

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781862073791
ISBN 10	1862073791
Title	Killing Dragons
Author	Fergus Fleming
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Granta Books
Year published	2000-10-16
Number of pages	448
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable