The lives of those involved in and those excluded from British Everest attempts up to 1924 are documented. Their background, dispositions, abilities and conflicts are covered in considerable detail. In short, this book gives an extensive view of the politics.

The disillusionment of the great war figured heavily into those early Everest attempts.

The epilogue gave a convincing explanation that Mallory and Irving probably did not reach the summit.


Chapter 7: the blindness of birds

… The four Noble truths
1. First, all life is suffering.… Only that terrible things happen. Evil was not exceptional but part of the existing order of things, a consequence of human actions or karma.
2. Second, because all suffering is ignorance. By ignorance the Buddha did not mean stupidity. He meant the tendency of human beings to cling to the cruel illusion of their own permanent and centrality…
3. The third of the Noble truths was the revelation that ignorance could be overcome, And the
4. Fourth and most essential was the delineation of a contemplative practice that, if followed, promised an end to suffering and a true liberation and transformation of the human heart. The goal was not to escape the world but to escape being enslaved by it. The purpose of practice was not the elimination of self but the annihilation of ignorance and the unmasking of the true Buddha nature, which, like a berry Jewel, shines bright within every human being, waiting to be revealed.

I knock this book down one star because it would go for pages without stating what year they were talking about. Even at the start of chapters they would give a month and day, but not state the year.
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A graphic history of war, Mountaineering and human endeavours. A view of politics and pomposity in the Royal Geographic Society as it affected attempts to climb Mount Everest and self interest of those involved combined with rank bad management and heroic activities of the climbers.

3.5 stars, this was just too long. Absolutely fascinating, but exhaustive in scope. The last 100 pages or so are the best, giving an excellent feel for being on the mountain with relatively primitive equipment. After reading Into Thin Air, this one just can't live up. ( )

It took me a while to get through this book, but I am glad I persisted.

Davis tells the story of the British expeditions to Everest in 1921, 1922 and 1924, but crucially also provides a great deal of political, social and historical background. This includes, obviously, WWI; Davis recounts the war experiences of many of the major figures and shows how the Great War shaped personalities and events. More importantly, some of the relevant history of Tibet and India is also covered, giving some necessary context to the expeditions - before, during, and afterward. Davis does not shy away from revealing a less-than-heroic side to many of the men involved, and it is clear that most had attitudes ranging from obliviousness to disrespect to callous disregard for the lives of the Tibetans and other non-white people they encountered (and exploited).

It is obvious that an enormous amount of time, effort, and persistence was needed to write this book. The annotated bibliography reveals a mind-boggling amount of archival research, trawling through personal correspondence and British army records. It's apparent that Davis is dedicated to his subject. Indeed, I found the recounting of the 1921 expedition hard going, with (what seemed to me to be) an inordinate amount of detail about every aspect of the journey across Tibet. It may be that other readers will be fascinated to learn what sort of flowers were to be found in every single valley traversed by the British, or that Bullock decided to leave his pink umbrella behind when setting out from a camp for a particular climb. To me, it seemed as though Davis was determined to reflect every single bit of knowledge he'd obtained. Fortunately the later expeditions do not get this over-detailed treatment, and I found most of the book quite riveting.

The other difficulty I had was in keeping track of all of the main players. I suppose that this might not be such an issue for those who are already more familiar with the subject matter; however I found that there were too many names and back-stories to keep straight and sometimes had to backtrack. (Not the author's fault at all, but this isn't easy in ebook format!). A 'dramatis personae' might have been useful.

Even more useful, however, would have been some maps! Only two fairly rudimentary maps of Everest are provided, showing camps and routes climbed. With so much detail on the travels needed to get to Everest - and with the focus on efforts to conduct cartographical and geographical studies - some good maps of Tibet and of the approaches to Everest would have helped immensely. I spent a great deal of time zooming around in Google Earth to try to get a feel for the landscape and the distances involved. ( )

Few would argue that the Dictionary isn't a good book, informative, everything you need to know. The same is true for the Encyclopedia - it contains everything you ever wanted to know about any subject. But while they're very informative, and excellent resources, that doesn't make them a great read. And that's my feeling about "Into the Silence". As the subtitle shows, it's about The Great War, it's about Mallory, and it's about the Conquest of Everest. Well, that's a lot to cover, and I would have preferred if Davis had selected one topic, and had written about that. This is clearly a well researched book, and I'm sure it meets all the requirements to be considered a wonderful book, but it just got too long, and often too bogged down in minutia to be enjoyed by me. The professional book critics and reviews seemed to love it, but I'd like to believe a well written story can still be told in something less than 700 pages. Davis explores the British team first conquering Mt. Everest, going back to the individuals experiences in WW I. He also provides extensive descriptions of life in Tibet. Davis appears to have had access to the diaries of several of the explorers, which provides interesting source material, but I prefer a book which can weed out the unnecessary elements from those diaries and weave a story from the most interesting portions. Personally, I found Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster" a much more interesting and much more readable book on a similar subject.
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