The Ascent Of Rum Doodle

Vintage Voyages


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

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

About 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W. E. Bowman (1912-1985) was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity.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.
Details
  • Series: Vintage Voyages
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • ISBN: 9781784875299
  • Length: 192 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 13mm x 130mm
  • Weight: 140g
  • Price: £9.99