✍The First Page: Even Higher Than Everest by George Almond

 

 EVEN HIGHER THAN EVEREST

By George Almond

Publication Date: October 26, 2018

Historical Fiction/Adventure Fiction/Biographical Fiction

EVEN HIGHER THAN EVEREST is a vastly entertaining, fact-based, yet dramatized story of a London cockney heiress who, in the 1930s, sent a small fleet of double winger biplanes on a daring and remarkably dangerous mission to fly over Mt. Everest and film the world’s highest and most famous mountain peak.

Author George Almond met the Himalayan heroes (Sherpa Tenzing and Lord Hunt), who explained how the first aerial photographs, taken in 1933, assisted their heroic ascent of Everest in 1953. Captivated by this dazzling and little known tale, the book - Even Higher than Everest - is a dramatized recount of the tenacity of the heiress Lucy Houston and her team of prestigious aviators whose five aircraft flew to the world's highest mountains.  A short 1930s film from footage of Houston’s flight, titled Wings Over Everest, won an Oscar in 1936 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_Over_Everest 

Commenting on his work, author George Almond says: “Inspired by true events of that first flight over Everest, the novel Even Higher Than Everest follows skilled personnel in finance, diplomacy, media, filming, engineering and aviation, all aiming for a shared objective. How these characters blended successfully, overcoming constant setbacks and challenges, was in itself a major accomplishment. I have followed the truth, tweaking just a few elements, in recounting the event.”

 

                     

Tiger Hill, India

February 1932

Percy Etherton had just decapitated a boiled egg when the telegram arrived. In his view, such messages were generally the heralds of grim or welcome news, so only when he had finished breakfast and was ready for either eventuality did he take a look at its contents.

Percy. I hear you are in Madras. Can you meet next Thursday at Grand Eastern Hotel Calcutta for a fine curry lunch? Then overnight train to West Bengal for weekend in the hills. Something important to discuss. Do come. RSVP. Blacker.

Etherton was a guest of the Governor of Madras at the time. He was immediately tempted to swap the equatorial heat of southern India for cooler air in the northern foothills, but for Etherton the prospect of spending some time with Colonel Blacker had to be the clincher. How could he decline an invitation from this particular friend, his former fellow officer on the Western Front? Etherton made his decision and sent his confirmation via the telegraph operator in Government House.

Now a week later, after 1500 miles of constant rail travel, a superb fish curry and a sleepless night on the overnight leg from Calcutta, Etherton was running on resilience when he alighted at Siliguri, a busy township beside the Mahananda River. Here he and Blacker transferred to the hill train of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The so-called toy train would follow a narrow gauge track climbing and cork-screwing all of fifty scenic miles to their destination.

Once under way, Etherton began to relax. The three day marathon was nearly done as he realised with wry amusement that he was still none the wiser. Nothing of significance had been mentioned to date and he wondered if he’d been lured into all this travel merely for a lungful of fresh air? Such motivation, he decided, would be unusual for Blacker who now sat opposite, engrossed in a Penguin paperback while totally ignoring their passage through the tumbling foothills. Though renowned in Britain and India for deeds of action rather than words of questionable substance, Blacker had so far provided no details whatsoever.

For an hour, the locomotive thrust against the steep gradients and reverse zig-zags, all constructed by outstanding engineers. Then Etherton began to sense an inconsistency in their progress. He wasn’t too surprised when, after completing the loop around Agony Point, the toy train convulsed and shuddered to a halt.

As soon as the screech of brakes had faded, a lively debate began. Some passengers accused the notorious loop for straining the engine while others suggested a sacred animal might be blocking the track? Both were fair assumptions thought Etherton who stood up to look through the window. He saw no holy cows ahead and astern of the stalled train lay only a lethal coil of track on the edge of a deep chasm.

‘Whatever the reason,’ he remarked, ‘I can think of better places to break down.’

Colonel Blacker glanced up from his book. ‘A runaway here would only bring agony. If the train slips, Percy, don’t hesitate to jump.’

 

 

George Almond, the grandson of a Wyoming horse rancher, enjoys revisiting great adventures. Born in London and educated in France and Oxford University he has ridden horseback 1500 miles across Europe, worked for Calgary Stampede's Champion Chuck Wagon driver,  sailed two oceans with the world's most experienced square-rig sea captain, taken the Flying Scotsman steam train from Boston to Houston where he was hired by Neiman Marcus. These days Almond makes his home in Europe, working on other books, including one about Jack Rackham and his two lady pirates who formerly sailed the Caribbean, preying upon merchant vessels.