In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route. Crowded conditions slowed their progress & late in the day 23 men & women including the expedition leaders were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disorientated & out of oxygen climbers struggled to find their way to safety. Alone & climbing blind Anatoli Boukreev rescued a number of climbers from certain death. This honest & gripping account

Includes:: the transcript of the Mountain Madness debriefing recorded five days after the tragedy as well as G. Weston de Walts response to Jon Krakauer. Powerful.. .a breath of brisk sometimes bitter clarity.. . Boukreev did the one thing that denies the void. He took action. He chose danger & he saved lives. New York Times Book Review The best book Ive read this year.. . The Climb has a story that will grip & haunt you. Alex Garland author of The Beach & The Tesseract

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The boxy spiky monkey puzzle tree stands tall & imposing outside the dormitory window of Woodmaston House For Girls a forbidding guardian to the schools young charges. Nancy Cameron is a new arrival not just to Woodmaston but to Engl&. Shes rolled up from the backwoods of Canada eager for a new life brimming with adventure. But boarding school isnt the Famous Five fantasy that Nancy had imagined. It is an austere loveless world where budding relationships are soon put to the test. Nancy wins friends & finds solace by telling stories but spinning stories for others cant hide the fact that Nancy feels horribly alone inside. & when she leads her dorm in a special fund-raising event that goes tragically wrong things go from bad to worse. Nancy longs to meet the glamorous brother of her friend Caroline & as her troubles build its an encounter that cant come soon enough
- until a shocking revelation comes to light...
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In Climbing Everest George Mallory (18 June 1886
- 8/9 June 1924) possibly the first man to summit Everest takes us with him on
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Challenge & train your hands feet body & brain with over 120 climbing games. This book is for anyone wanting to have fun climbing while developing crucial skills. The games described can be used in a wide range of activities from working on specific skills to fun warm-ups. As an aid to a climbing session or as the sole activity climbing movements can be broken down & practised in a safe but challenging environment. The book takes an introductory look at which specific aspects of climbing & methods of coaching are important
- together with some aspects of sports science this give the text a dual purpose as a coaching manual & as an encyclopaedia of games. Many of these games are particularly suited to those that are new to climbing & wish to improve their skills. If youre new to climbing youll find games which introduce some essential skills (such as crimping a hold). Equally old hands may welcome new games as an aid to helping friends progress or as an addition to a weekly climbing session. As a qualified instructor or an informal coach teaching friends or a parent teaching their children this book provides an invaluable tool for hours of practical training or even just entertainment for rainy afternoons! The easy to use format allows those coaching or even the client themselves to select their own games based on current needs & desires. The overview of skills employed in each game will help you turn play into progress.
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In Climbing Mount Improbable" Richard Dawkins author of " The God Delusion" builds a powerful & carefully reasoned argument for evolutionary adaptation as the force behind all life on earth. What drives species to evolve? How can intricate structures such as the human eye the spiders web or the wings of birds develop seemingly by chance? Regarding evolutions most complex achievements as peaks on a metaphorical mountain " Climbing Mount Improbable" reveals the ways in which the theory of natural selection can precisely explain the beautiful bizarre & seemingly designed complexity of living things. & through it all runs the thread of DNA the molecule of life responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Accompanied by evocative illustrations Dawkins eloquent descriptions of the living worlds astonishing adaptations throw back the curtain on the mysteries of Mount Improbable. "A beautiful barnstorming thunderclap of a book". (Michael White " Mail on Sunday"). " Exhilarating
- a perfect elegant riposte to a great deal of fuzzy thinking about natural selection & evolution". (" Observer"). " Dawkins has done more than anyone else now writing to make evolutionary biology comprehensible & acceptable". (" Sunday Times"). " Dazzling". (David Attenborough). "A cracking good book on evolution". (John Gribbin). Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society & the Royal Society of Literature & Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with " The Selfish Gene" which he followed with a string of bestselling books: " The Extended Phenotype" " The Blind Watchmaker" " River Out of Eden" " Unweaving the Rainbow" & an impassioned defence of atheism " The God Delusion"."
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Aconcagua; Denali; Elbrus; Everest; Kilimanjaro; Kosciuszko; Vinson. To a climber these mountains are known as the Seven Summits"
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From the grand houses of Brighton to imposing London mansions life as a kitchen maid could be exhausting & demoralising. It's not just being at the beck & call of the people upstairs when even the children of the family can treat you like dirt but having to deal with temperamental cooks starchy butlers & chauffeurs with a roving eye. Marriage is the only escape but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) & Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks -- & smells -- a bit like his wares) her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams. But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? & can she make the perfect wife when as she soon discovers years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder -- how can someone like her ever improve their station? Told with her trademark wit & warmth Climbing the Stairs is a unique sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters & servants began to lose its sway & of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands. ' Margaret Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world so near & yet seemingly so far away where servants & their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories funny & poignant angry & charming haunted me until many years later I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt' Julian Fellowes ...

Clinging to the Wreckage"
- the first part of John Mortimers hilarious & moving autobiography. "A true masterpiece of
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Building to a white-knuckle climax The Clinic is a brilliantly plotted thriller. For three months the police have found no clues to the murder of Hope Devane psychology professor & controversial author of a pop-psych bestseller an angry indictment of men. Now homicide detective Milo Sturgis turns to his friend psychologist Dr Alex Delaware for help. One by one they unlock the very private compartments of her life: her marriage her shadowy work for a Beverly Hills clinic & her baffling link to another murder victim. But when Alex delves into her childhood he begins to understand the formidable woman she was
- & the ties that entangled her life until the horrifying act of betrayal that ended it.
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Widely regarded as the standard reference in the field this book now in its third edition provides essential tools for understanding & assessing malingering & other response styles in forensic & clinical contexts. An integrating theme for the substantially expanded third edition is the systematic application of detection strategies as conceptually grounded empirically validated methods that bridge different measures & populations. From leading practitioners & researchers the volume presents major theoretical empirical & clinical advances. Coverage of multiscale inventories & feigned cognitive impairment has been doubled & new chapter topics include feigned medical presentations factitious disorders & forensic evaluations. ...