The Ascent Of Rum Doodle
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  • Published: 23 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407085203
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 4 hr 15 min
  • Narrator: Terry Wale
  • RRP: $17.99

The Ascent Of Rum Doodle

Formats & editions
EBook
31 Aug 2011
Audiobook
23 Dec 2010
Paperback
6 Aug 2019
Paperback
1 Jun 2010
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A new edition of W.E. Bowman's hilarious spoof, with a new introduction by Bill Bryson.

First published in 1956, The Ascent of Rum Doodle quickly became established as a mountaineering classic. As an outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak, many thought it inspired by the 1953 conquest of Everest. But Bowman had drawn on the flavour and tone of earlier adventures, of Bill Tilman and his 1937 account of the Nandi Devi expedition. The book's central and unforgettable character, Binder, is one of the finest creations in comic literature.
  • Published: 23 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407085203
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 4 hr 15 min
  • Narrator: Terry Wale
  • RRP: $17.99
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About the author

W E Bowman

W. E. Bowman (1912-1985) was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity. He was married with two children.

Also by W E Bowman

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Praise for The Ascent Of Rum Doodle

Wonderful. Rum Doodle does for mountaineering what Three Men in a Boat did for Thames-going or Catch-22 did for the Second World War. It is simply an account of the leader of an expedition up Rum Doodle, a 40,000 and a half foot peak in the Himalayas, in the same way that Scoop is simply a tale about newsgathering in Africa. The tone is nearer to Pooter than anyone else I can think of, but the flavour is all W.E. Bowman's own.

Sunday Times

I just love this book. Everything about it is nearly perfect... hugely enjoyable and brilliantly sustained.

From the introduction by Bill Bryson

Exceedingly funny... as if the hero of Diary of a Nobody had, in a mood of abandon, turned to mountaineering.

Dublin Magazine

it is an epic. It is Homeric. It is inspiring. It is very, very funny... Read it and be moved.

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