Through a Land of Extremes [Hardcover]

For rescuing two of the nineteenth centurys greatest explorers from obscurity, the Clinches deserve to our heartfelt thanks --Nick Fielding Steppe Magazine and Sunday Times Journalist

'Every one of their journeys would now be considered an accomplishment of note' Francis Younghusband. On 4 August 1895, at a 19,000ft pass on the north side of Goring La in Tibet, only 48 miles from Lhasa, a 43-year-old Englishman, his 55-year-old wife and a fox terrier confronted over 150 Tibetans armed with primitive matchlocks. The Englishman was St George Littledale. His wife, Teresa, had shared in all of his adventures. In the nineteenth century, Teresa and George Littledale were known as the greatest English explorers of their day, journeying further into the hidden lands of Asia than any Western explorer had previously achieved. Yet, because they never published their own account of their journeys, for over a century their story has remained largely forgotten. Now, the authors, having discovered the Littledales' diaries and letters have for the first time pieced together their remarkable, adventurous and courageous lives.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Clinch has, with her husband, been to Chinese Central Asia, visiting the places the Littledales stayed. Nicholas B. Clinch was executive director of the Sierra Club Foundation and President of the American Alpine Club. He organised and led Himalayan expeditions and an Antarctic Expedition.