The View from the Summit

‘Sir Edmund, he’s worshipped, you know, as a god among the Sherpas.’ Jamling Tenzing. The first man to set foot on the summit of Everest, the man who led a team of tractors to the South Pole, the man who jetboated up the Ganges from the ocean to the sky has, for the first time, gathered all the remarkable adventures of a long life into one volume. But there is more to Ed Hillary than this. He is also the man who repaid his debt of fame to the Himalayas by inaugurating a programme of school, clinic, airstrip and bridge-building in Nepal which, with his still active support, has gone from strength to strength over the four decades since he himself mastered the Hillary Step and led his companion Tenzing Norgay up Everest’s final summit ridge. View from the Summit is a thoughtful and honest reappraisal of a life spent pushing human ability to its limits and relishing the challenges thrown down by the elements. It is also the story of a man whom the world has taken to its heart.

Kirkus Reviews UK Although the world sees the first man to reach the summit of Everest as a hero, Hillary nevertheless sees himself as a person of modest abilities and humble origins, and this perception of himself is reinforced throughout his account of his own life. Hillary’s achievement plays only a small part in his life, and he went on to lead part of the trans-Antarctic expedition and serve as New Zealand’s high commissioner in India. He has worked over the years to provide schools, bridges and clinics for the Nepalese, although he is as modest about this aspect of his life’s work as he is outspoken about the shortcomings of the expeditions with which he has been involved, and reticent about the tragic loss of his first wife and youngest child. Hillary may not be a stylish prose writer but his autobiography provides a unique perspective on one of the great heroes of the 20th century. (Kirkus UK)

Author Biography

Sir Edmund Hillary was born in 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand and served in the New Zealand Air Force during the Second World War. Knighted for his ascent of Everest in 1953, he achieved many more adventuring ‘firsts’ before establishing the Himalayan Trust, an organization devoted to improving the lives of people living in the Himalayas. He has two surviving children by his first wife, Louise, who died tragically in a plane crash with their third child, Belinda. He then married June, widow of his Antarctic partner Pete Mulgrew. Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary lived in Auckland until his death in 2008.