The Ascent Of Rum Doodle

(Paperback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

'A hilarious spoof and perfect parody of Britishness...it shames what now claims to be comedy' The Times An English comic novel about a World War II expedition to a Himalayan peak. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BILL BRYSON An outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak, The Ascent of Rum Doodle has been a cult favourite since its publication in 1956. 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 sets out to conquer the highest peak in the Himalayas.

Reviews

I just love this book. Everything about it is nearly perfect... hugely enjoyable and brilliantly sustained. * From the introduction by Bill Bryson *
An amazing book about mountain climbing from 1956. Laugh-out-loud literature -- Tim Key * Guardian *
This wonderfully funny parody of adventure stories was first written in the 1950s but is just as fresh today with a truly brilliant comic narrator whose commentary on the expedition members is unintentionally hilarious. Buy it * Sunday Mirror *
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 *
This gentle, deadly parody of the tight-arsed old school of British exploration narratives is seemingly a cult book among mountaineers, but it has been virtually unknown to the reading public since its first publication in 1956 * Guardian *

Author Bio

W. E. Bowman was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity.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