Brian Blessed, the famous actor, plays a large part in my new book. At the moment he is filming in New Zealand, and has kindly sent us this quiet, considered review of my book. Turn the volume down.
I’m back in England, and it’s wonderful weather. The River Avon was glinting in the sun, and the little wooden dinghy looked so appealing…but boats only make you happy twice. Once when you buy them, and once when you sell them. I’m trying to resist it.
My new book, “Last Hours on Everest” is just out. You see, before Hillary and Tenzing, who climbed Everest in 1953, there was George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who disappeared high on the mountain in 1924. Aged 12 I met my cousin Howard Somervell, who was with Mallory and Irvine on that expedition. He told me how he had lent his camera to Mallory, and said that if I could find it I might prove that Mallory had climbed the mountain 29 years before Hillary and Tenzing.
I have spent most of my life trying to find out what happened to Mallory and Irvine, going to the mountain 9 times and being on the expedition that found Mallory’s body in 1999.
I think I have finally figured out what happened to Mallory and Irvine, and have reconstructed their last hours of their last climb.
I also deal with the present expedition: Seven Seas, Seven Summits.
It is getting excellent reviews. See www.malloryeverest.com
Kick ‘em Jenny is an underwater volcano just to the north of Grenada, and it erupted in 1988 and 1989. It is trying to become an island like all the other volcanic islands around here. Each time we sail past we have skirted the safety zone closer and closer, gazing at the waves and imagining the crater bubbling with magma just below the waves. But if she blows we’ll get a good kicking from Kick ‘em Jenny.
Curlew has reached the southern end of the Windward Islands at last and to celebrate we have done some diving. Friend Fabrice and I disappeared down the anchor chain to around 10 metres below the waves, where we found the strange world that Curlew’s anchor inhabits. In amongst the sea-snakes and multi-coloured fish we find the trusty old CQR half buried in the sand. It looks well dug-in.