Fallen: George Mallory: The Man, The Myth and the 1924 Everest Tragedy
For my eighth birthday my mother gave me a book, The Boy’s Book of Heroes, and it was here that I first learned about Mallory and Irvine, the two British climbers who disappeared in an attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1924. A glorious and preferably futile death seemed a good qualification to become a British hero.
Conefrey’s book begins as a biography of Mallory and his junior colleague, Irvine, and goes on to describe the 1924 expedition in detail, and then the search for the climbers’ bodies. The mystery of their death was partly resolved in 1999 by the discovery of Mallory’s body, but this did nothing to resolve the question of whether the duo had reached the summit, 29 years before Hilary and Tensing. The search for Mallory’s camera, which was not on his body, inspired an expedition as recently as 2019.
When asked why he was eager to risk his life to climb Everest, Mallory famously replied, ‘because it’s there’. He epitomises heroism for its own sake. He who dares wins, if only a posthumous glory.
A mystery makes a good story, and Conefrey tells it well.
