(The Nation, Sunday Oct. 18, 1998)

This book has fascinating accounts of the journeys of six pioneers who lived and worked in the Himalayan region. Of course, they were not just thrill-seeking adventurers but people doing their duty in very forbidding territory and adverse conditions. Some received honours while they lived, others didn't, but they all deserve to be remembered.
   A childhood fascination for the Himalayas and marriage to the daughter of George Mallory; a mountaineer who lost his life on Mount Everest in 1925, saw Robertson make many trips to India, Nepal Sikkim and Bhutan. He thus has first-hand knowledge of most of the terrain his writing explores. And to bring the author's own story lull circle, as he mentions in his preface, his nephew George Mallory got to the summit of the Everest in 1995.

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