Jeffrey Archer's insult to Sir Ed
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Best-selling author and former UK politician Jeffrey Archer has taken a swipe at Sir Edmund Hillary's legacy with a novel based on the premise a British mountaineer was the first to conquer Everest.
Paths of Glory is a fictionalised account of the life of George Mallory, whose ill-fated attempt to scale the world's highest mountain in 1924 has long been shrouded in mystery.
Mallory was last seen a few hundred metres below the summit and died shortly afterwards after falling from a ridge. Many of his admirers believe he made it to the top and deserves Hillary's place in history as Everest's conqueror.
Archer's political career ended in disgrace in Britain in 2001 when he was found guilty of perjury and sentenced to four years in jail. His writing career has suffered little damage however his three volumes of prison diaries were bestsellers, as was his 2007 novel based on the life of Jesus.
His new book, which ends with Mallory becoming the "first man to stand on top of the earth", has rekindled speculation about whether the dashing adventurer might have beaten Sir Ed to the summit by 29 years. Archer makes a central plot device of Mallory's promise he would leave a photograph of his wife at the summit; when Mallory's body was found on the mountain in 1999, no photograph was found in his belongings.
But fellow mountaineer and friend of Sir Ed, Graeme Dingle, said of Archer's premise: "He's dreaming. There's essentially no chance Mallory got to the top. All the evidence points to them not making it."
He said Archer's interest in portraying Mallory as the first to summit the mountain was motivated by wounded English pride at having been beaten by a colonial.
"The English were desperate to get to the top and they didn't get there, even in 1953. I think the English are pretty sensitive about it. They've got nothing to be ashamed about, they had a lot of glorious failures."
He said one aspect of the speculation surrounding the doomed climber which was omitted from Archer's book was that Mallory chose climbing partner Andrew Irvine because of a homosexual attraction between the pair. Irvine, too, died during the 1924 attempt, although his body has not been found.
"Some have said the flaw of Mallory's character was he chose Irvine because of a possible gay relationship, and not based on good, sound mountaineering judgement," said Dingle.
But not everyone felt Archer's fictional contention was off the mark. Auckland journalist Pat Booth, author of an unauthorised 1993 Hillary biography, said he had been intrigued by Mallory's story since his body was discovered, offering clues that suggested he may have reached the summit and was making his descent when he died.
"I can understand Archer's curiosity with the whole theory. It's a gripping and challenging proposition," he said, adding that admitting as much was contentious "here in Hillary country".
Whether Mallory reached the summit is a mystery that is unlikely to be resolved. But Hillary's place in history is safe, given the widely held view expressed by Sir Ed and Mallory's son John that a successful ascent involves getting to the bottom again safely.
Said John Mallory: "To me, the only way you achieve a summit is to come back alive. The job is half done if you don't get down again."
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Could we just set one tiny fact straight in amongst all the brooh ha had about this book? The comment by Mr Dingle about Mallory picking Irvine only because of a homosexual attraction is disproved by letters found in 1999 that show Mallory had chosen Irvine as his climbing partner before they had even reached base camp. As to Archer's fiction. It is just that.
Working on his next book: The holocaust never happened.
A great headline. It has got everyone worked up a treat. Done the job. Pity it's all rubbish journalism.
I agree with Liz and Lance and the others who are more outraged at the attention this has received... Archer actually doesn't deserve all this free publicity for his book... and that's it in a nutshell for me!
Wont be reading it, don't care, and you can only be insulted if some one has insulted you! Perspective!
Why does Stuff not say who the author of this article is? I would totally take the piss for such a sensationalist headline. This whole issue is not even a footnote in the life of a great Kiwi. Well done stuff, how did this one get past the editor? (roll eyes) Rangi.
So for his next trick he is going to claim that Scott beat Amundsen to the South Pole.
Yay - thank you Lance - I thought everyone was going bonkers - it's a fictional story for goodness sake - I bet the same people who got upset about this one also believe that the characters from Shortland Street really exist.... Get a grip!!!!
I don't think anyone should get all angry and outraged about this. Archer has not insulted Sir Ed or "taken a swipe" at his legacy. His book is simply a novel speculating on a mystery that has intrigued mountaineers for 84 years. He is not openly claiming that Mallory reached the summit of Everest, he is just imagining through a work of fiction what might have happened if he had. Very disappointed in Dingle's knee-jerk attacks on the English, too. Has he read the book or was he simply reacting to what he was told about it? Doesn't he understand what a work of fiction is? He of all people should know that when Hillary and Tenzing (remember him?) reached the summit they did so as members of the 1952 British Everest Expedition led by John Hunt. They were chosen as the second summit attempt team after the first had been forced back. If Hunt - an Englishman - had been "sensitive" about being beaten by a "colonial", would he have given Hillary and Tenzing the job? If New Zealanders are going to react with snarling anger and personal attacks on anyone who dares to speculate on what happened to Mallory and Irvine then it's not the English who will get the reputation of being too sensitive.
Liz & Lance have hit the nail right on the head. Though many will enjoy reading his light FICTION, nobody over here actually takes any real notice of Archer. It's certainly nothing to over-react and get sensitive about, but it does make an easy cheap headline I suppose.
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George Mallory may well have got to the top of Everest,though the evidence is admittedly inconclusive. The fact remains that he or Irvine did not return, and in the words of another distinguished climber; " going up is optional, coming down is essential". In this sense Mallory and Irving failed. This takes nothing away from Hillary or rightful New Zealand pride in a great man. Hillary and Tensing were the first. I am English through and through and can say I am just as proud of Hillary. These were the first, the few,the essential adveturers. It is a constant dissapontment to me that the 1300 or so who have followed are to my own mind pointless and selfish climbs centered on total self aggrandisment and intense personal ego. Not what the likes of Mallory or Hillary had in mind at all. Its been done to death, literally!