Books

In this book Joe Simpson wrestles with the perplexing nature of aggression and violence - their eruption in himself, in others, in society, in nature, and their evil consequences in cruelty, warfare and genocide. He recalls his meeting with a band of Khampas fleeing over the high Nangpa La pass from the brutality of Chinese oppression in Tibet. His love of Himalayan life contrasts with the ruthless Chinese destruction of the Tibetan culture and people.

‘This immensely accessible book offers a unique re-interpretation of masculinity...In doing so, it offers a ray of hope to an increasingly bleak and vicious society’ The Independent

‘Simpson is a born writer’ – The Times

Since his epic battle for survival in the Andes, recounted in the bestselling Touching the Void, Joe Simpson has endured several further brushes with death and has suffered the loss of many climbing friends in accidents which call into question the exhilarating, death-defying activity to which he has devoted his whole life. Never more alive than when most at risk, he has come to see an attempt on the Eiger, with its hooded, mile-high North Face, as the culmination of his climbing career. In a narrative which takes the reader through extreme experiences from an avalanche in South America, ice-climbing in the Alps and Colorado and paragliding in Spain before his final confrontation with the Eiger and two more deaths Simpson reveals the inner truth of climbing, exploring both the power of the mind and the frailties of the body.

‘The Beckoning Silence is a forceful reminder of [Joe Simpson’s] talents’ – The Independent

This is a sequel to 'Touching the Void', which won the 1989 NCR Award for Non-fiction and the Boardman Tasker Award, and in which Simpson described a fall in the Himalayas which crippled and almost broke him. Forced to test his nerve he struggled on crutches to 20,000 feet on Pumori, only to hear the news of the death of yet one more friend in the mountains. In an attempt to find a catharsis for his confused emotions, he wrote this memoir of the signposts that have directed him since childhood to measure fear and embrace the unknown.

‘[It] is a strange, beautiful, bewildering and often very moving book’ The List

‘This is a remarkable book’ – Sunday Express

Joe Simpson presents a gripping tale of adventure on the very edge of survival. This story has become one of the all-time classic epics of mountaineering and the book has reached far beyond the world of climbers. It is an inspirational story of humanity in the extreme. Mixing humour and drama, Joe tells of his experiences in the Peruvian Andes with total honesty and lets the intense excitement of the story grip the reader.

‘Touching the void is one of the absolute classics of mountaineering’ – Sunday Times

‘It is not just a book about mountaineering. Ultimately it is about the spirit of man and the lifeforce that drives us all’ Magnus Magnusson, presenting the NCR award

 ‘On every level, it is an outstanding literary achievement’ - Independent

Now that Everest has become the playground of the rich, where commercial operators offer guided tours to the top up fixed ropes amidst the detritus and unburied corpses of previous less fortunate climbers, Simpson wonders if the noble, caring instincts that once characterised mountaineering have been irrevocably displaced - as in other facets of today's society.

‘His concern is that the strong ethics and selfless instincts that have characterised mountaineering in the past are being eroded by modern-day, selfishness and greed.’ Sunday Times

As her hand slips from his grip, Patrick's life is shattered, forever changed. The Sound of Gravity is a harrowing, dramatic and powerful tale of love, loss and redemption as that haunting split-second memory changes the course of a lifetime. Trapped high on a stormbound mountain face in the icy depths of winter, the stricken young man is forced to fight for his life. Half a lifetime later, haunted by grief and guilt, Patrick is freed from his self-imposed vigil when at last the mountain releases his heart-rending secret.

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