From horrors of war to heights of Everest

This is one of those books that is clearly a labour of love. Wade Davis dedicated much of 10 years to the researching and writing of a formidable, impressive and captivating work that traverses much ground.

Once or twice, notably in the details of the 1921 expedition which went well "off the map" in the northern Everest region, I wondered if the depth of the detail was too much, if the author was too determined not to waste information he had gathered so assiduously. But I soon became engrossed again. I soon looked forward eagerly to reading more as the narrative propelled towards the inevitable disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the mountain.

This is far more than a mountaineering story. Davis sketches biographies of the participants on, and behind, the three expeditions - 1921, 1922 and 1924 - and places them in national and social contexts. Many, he explains, somehow survived the utter and unimaginable horror of World War 1. They and their nation, England, were deeply scarred, and attempts on Everest represented a yearning for a heroic, grand and purer age that had been lost forever in the blood and mud of the Western Front.

In a volume of this size, 600-plus pages, Davis has scope to describe the horrific war history of all the key men, plus the family, school and university milieu of several, particularly Mallory. There is the chance to place the ventures in the context of imperialism and Tibetan politics as well as ample opportunities to explore the Buddhist world through which the expeditions tramped and trampled. As an anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Davis is well-qualified to appreciate Tibet as these Englishmen found it.

Davis, while clearly admiring the fortitude and skills of these pioneers, also speculates on the interplay of their failings, motives and rivalries.

Mallory, for instance, is far from one-dimensional - and, of course, all the more interesting for that.

As a footnote, the last person to see Irvine and Mallory alive was a vigorous, outstanding mountaineer, Noel Odell, who later became head of the geology department at the University of Otago (1950-56).

And as to the question of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the top before they perished - that remains but a remote possibility.

• Philip Somerville is ODT editorial manager and an enthusiast for the mountains.