WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
2021'One of the best books ever written about the early attempts to conquer Everest. A fine
fine slice of history by a truly special writer who proves time and time again that he is among
the best of his generation' Dan Jones author of The Plantagenets'A small classic of the
biographer's art' Sunday TimesIn the 1930s as official government expeditions set their sights
on conquering Everest a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his
own crazy beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest crash
land on its lower slopes then become the first person to reach its summit - all utterly alone.
Wilson didn't know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. But he had pluck daring and a
vision - he wanted to be the first man to stand on top of the world.Maurice Wilson is a man
written out of the history books - dismissed as an eccentric and a charlatan by many but held
in the highest regard by world class mountaineers such as Reinhold Messner. The Moth and the
Mountain restores him to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and in doing so attempts
to answer that perennial question - why do we climb mountains?'A towering tragic tale rescued
from oblivion by Ed Caesar's magnificent writing' Dan Snow'This bonkers ripping yarn of
derring-don't is a hell of a ride' The Times'It's hard to imagine a finer tribute to one of
Everest's forgotten heroes' Elizabeth Day
