Alexander Maitland

When They Were Up, They Were Up

Shipton & Tilman: The Great Decade of Himalayan Exploration

By

Hutchinson 412pp £25 order from our bookshop

The legendary partnership of Eric Shipton and H W Tilman is unique in the history of 20th-century mountaineering. They met for the first time early in 1930 in Kenya, where both were working on coffee plantations: ‘a good life’, Shipton wrote, ‘full of interest and variety, and … a great sense of freedom’.

At this stage, Tilman’s brief climbing experience was confined to the Lake District, while Shipton had climbed in the Swiss Alps, the Bergeller, England, France and Wales. Having rejected a career in law, Shipton’s degree in estate management led to Africa. With Gustav Sommerfelt and Percy Wyn Harris, he climbed the twin peaks of Mount Kenya in 1929, the first successful ascent since Halford Mackinder’s pioneering venture thirty years earlier.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The physical courage he demonstrated as a young man [...] gave way to intellectual power; radical thought, gifted… ,
    • 'While Jane Austen didn’t perhaps achieve the full recognition that she deserved in her lifetime, even then she out… ,
    • 'All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And t… ,
    • 'You are interested in a particular subject; basic research hardens this interest into an obsession, after which th… ,
    • 'Keynes predicted that future generations would enjoy such an improved standard of living that they might work just… ,
    • 'Various dislocations ... emerge, iceberg-like, out of a troubled sea of unconscious motivation and confront Eisenb… ,
    • Today is the first today of the – they've got some excellent events coming up over the next two weeks.… ,
    Follow Us