Book Review: Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer

Seemed a little strange to be reading this book in the heat of Doha with a subject so closely connected to Mount Everest.

Paths of Glory is based on the story of George Mallory, who it can be argued was the first man to get to the summit of Mount Everest. However this has never been proven one way or the other and he died in the attempt.

The novel, based generally on fact goes back to the early days of the 20^th century, as Mallory died in 1924. Before you get to the end, there is the story of Mallory's life and his mountaineering life as well as his personal life.

Mallory was a brilliant student and became a teacher but his passion was mountain climbing and his obsession was to climb Everest. However, his life like so many others at the time was interrupted by the First World War (1914-1918) where he fought bravely and managed to survive it so that he could continue climbing.

I enjoyed Paths of Glory very much as I must confess I had never heard of George Mallory and he is a great English hero. Archer also tells the story well, as ever his prose is easy to read. And I believe that he was fair at the end and the mystery of whether Mallory reached the summit or not is still not cleared up. A mystery in a factual book.

8/10 for me on this one.