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  • Published: 6 August 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784875299
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $22.99

The Ascent Of Rum Doodle

(Vintage Voyages)




VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind


An outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak, discover this laugh-out-loud cult favourite.

Led by the reliably under-insightful Binder, a team of seven British men including Dr Prone (constantly ill); Jungle the route finder (constantly lost), Constant the diplomat (constantly arguing) and 3,000 Yogistani porters, set out to conquer the highest peak in the Himalayas.


VINTAGE VOYAGES: A world of journeys, from the tallest mountains to the depths of the mind

  • Published: 6 August 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784875299
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $22.99

Other books in the series

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W. E. Bowman (1912-1985) was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity.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

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.

Books of the Month

Amazing...Laugh-out-loud literature

Tim Key, Guardian