- Hardcover: 672 pages
- Publisher: W&N; 1st ed. edition (13 July 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297646354
- ISBN-13: 978-0297646358
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.6 x 5.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 72,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Individually the three volumes of Chris Bonington's autobiography are collector's items. Here they are brought together in a value-for-money omnibus. I Chose to Climb, was published in 1966 and told of his initiation into mountaineering, from schoolboy beginnings, culminating in the British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger and his decision to turn professional. The Next Horizon picks up where that volume left off and relates his subsequent adventures as a mountaineer, photographer, journalist and expedition leader ending in the summer of 1972 with preparations for the autumn Everest expedition. In the event this expedition only just failed to put a British climber on top of the world's highest mountain for the first time. The last volume The Everest Years chronicles his four expeditions to the world's highest peak and Bonington's obsession with this particular mountain. In all three books we learn about the charismatic generation of climbing personalities who were his friends, with whom he shared his triumphs and fights for survival on dangerous and sometimes tragic expeditions. We learn too of Chris Bonington's development into the devoted family man and celebrity he is today.
About the Author
Sir Chris Bonington (knighted in 1995 for services to mountaineering) has been Britain's best-known mountaineer since he climbed Everest the hard way in 1976. Now 62 he has climbed mountains in four continents. He is married with two sons and lives in Cumbria.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry, discipline, emotion - a privilege and a lesson,
By A Customer
This review is from: Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington (Hardcover)
...This is a bumper volume of 3 books and I'll leave it to the experts to discuss the technical side. What left a lasting impression on me - and I make a point of reading my now probably valuable 1st edn Boningtons before any stiff climb around Baker or Rainier - was his huge felicity with words while at the same time preserving a gentlemanly diffidence; his willingness to bare his soul in a way that tapped universal truths. Mountaineering types will read assessments of this collection in their favoured climbing press, but what I urge is that *non* climbers give this a look-see. In one collection, you're in the hands of an athlete and a soldier and one who can write. Carton de Wiart was the last bloke who gave me this feeling. We see Bonington - and please, when will editors finally wake up to his spelling? - grow thru early ebullience to what I suppose I might recognise as maturity if I ever make it there myself. Either way, it works and it stops you in your tracks to think. Nor is Bonington is not shy to show his emotions. We've all had excruciating battles with indecision or those appalling times when we were helpless in the face of loved ones' deaths. Bonington just hacks it onto the page and even as the tears run, you thank him for finallh nailing it so well. What with ghastly Americanism one might call "closure". The mountains are just a setting for this very human tale and any loner who's tried to make some sense of this world will translate the peaks into whatever battleground they themselves chose. Here's a bloke who chucked a decent payslip from The Man to pit himself against the peaks. More than that - and here's where you'd never have got Haston or Whillans to dissect it with such skill - Bonington describes the commercial side of having to fawn and whip up cash from the drippiest types to finance an expedition, only to see the moolah drain before the first sherpas have even started their steady jog up from Base Camp. 'The Everest Years' is a real bonus here: as with this omnibus, I'd been sent it for review yonks ago but I clearly had other things on my mind because I don't at all remember the expert rhythm or the poetry of this autumnal Bonington. The canvas is wider - vertiginous Changabang, Ogre where CB bust himself up something awful - but the writing trancends the mountain (Pseuds Corner, here I come) and seems to spell out universal truths, which is why I shall be buying this up as Xmas presents for my closest climbing buds and urging it on anyone else with a pulse and an eye for the well turned phrase. Only the Good Lord knows why He chose Chris to survive when he gathered so many others- infant and adult, climber, kin - perhaps to place with us these incomparable records as a bridge between those who need to feed the rat and the hugely more courageous ones we leave behind..Give it a go: seek it out in your local bookshop or library and just savour the style and glimpse the man. He doesn't just climb them: Bonington rocks.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worthwhile but weighty,
This review is from: Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington (Hardcover)
In summary,>Some of the writing in the book is great, and some of the places and actions that are described are great too; a lot of it is insightful (particularly the politics and scrapping that went with big objectives in the Himalaya and elsewhere). In some places, this all comes together and the effect is great.However, the down side to this tome is the sheer volume and patchy nature; too often it feels like you're not reading a story, you're reading a textbook and trying to absorb everything. This gets very tiring, and in my case the book gets put down - only to be picked up again months later. Eventually, you finish it. If I'd bought this tome as separate books rather than an omnibus, then I think it would have worked much better - finishing each one would have led me to try to remember to buy the next - and the naturally induced breaks might have improved the experience. In the end, these books are great books, especially if you like real-life tales of adventure, but unwisely bunched into an omnibus. It's not as pacey as say "The White Spider", or even "Solo: The North Pole...", but it's worth persevering for the historical value.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Philosophy of Climbing,
By M. Ragen "searagen" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful collection of three autobiographical books by Chris Bonington. Unlike expedition accounts, these cover broad swathes of time -- about ten years each. This approach gives the author a chance to describe the advances in his technical climbing capability through the years. More significantly, however, the collection gradually downplays the technical side; the length of time that he surveys gives Bonington the space to describe his evolving philosophy towards climbing. The technical aspects of climbing seem to diminish through the book and the storyline is replaced by the inner exploration of what it means for him to climb. As he grows older, the changes in personality that it takes to become a successful leader of climbers are also increasingly demonstrated. Bonington has certainly lived a charmed life; except for his injuries suffered on the Ogre, he has been blessed with luck that few other climbers have sustained over a 30-40 year span. He has also been blessed with an ability to write that few other climbers (perhaps Greg Childs, Joe Tasker, Peter Boardman, and Joe Simpson?) can match. Highly recommended. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mountaineer aristocrat - articulacy vs Vertigo,
By Chris Holmes "busker" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington (Hardcover)
I had the rare advantage in the early 1970s of contributing to Cassell (UK) publisher's publicity when I worked with Chris Bonington and the genius mystic climber Dougal Haston's "In High Places".This is a bumper volume of 3 books and I'll leave it to the experts to discuss the technical side. What leaves a lasting impression is Bonington's (now Sir Chris, I believe) felicity with words while at the same time preserving a gentlemanly diffidence; his willingness to bare his soul in a way that tapped universal truths. Mountaineering types will read assessments of this collection in their favoured climbing press, but I urge *non* climbers to give this a look-see. In one collection, you're in the hands of an athlete and a soldier and one who can write. Here's a man who passed up a prince's salary as a Suit to pit himself against the peaks. More than that - and here's where you'd never have got Haston or Whillans dissecting it with such skill - Bonington describes the *commercial* side of having to fawn and press flesh to squeeze up the cash. 'The Everest Years' is a real bonus here, and what comes home is the author's expert rhythm and poetry. The canvas is wide - vertiginous Changabang, Ogre where CB bust himself up something awful - but the writing transcends the mountain and seems to spell out universal truths. Only God knows why He chose Chris to survive when so many others- infant and adult, climber, kin - have been 'gathered'. Perhaps to place with us these incomparable records as a bridge between those like him who need to tackle those heights, and their courageous loved ones who take this lunacy on trust. Go seek this rare writing out. |
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