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FOR MANY OF us, the extraordinary experiences of other men
. and women provide a welcome flight for our imagination, away
from the humdrum business of living our ordinary lives. I t is
often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and a true story is
certainly more compelling than fiction if it reveals how real people
have risen above normal behaviour in their reaction to extraordinary
circumstances. The more such a story exposes the whole truth about
human conduct in moments of danger or periods of hardship, the
more fascinating it is. I give high marks to those who have fulfilled
these criteria in bringing together this collection of books, condensed
into the manageable proportions of two neat volumes.
These astonishing tales reveal how very different people have faced
up to situations of great difficulty in a wide variety of times and
circumstances. The two related themes of courage and endurance
run through all of them, and other human qualities are highlighted.
For a true story, ifit is to carry conviction, should not dwell only on
the heroic streak in human nature. We should be told of the human
weaknesses to which all of us are prone, especially when exposed to
hardship and tested by fear. I am glad that some of these stories also
reveal the shortcomings of some of those whose deeds are recorded
and which, in one or two instances, challenge deeply ingrained social
inhibitions. In Alive, the story of air-crash survivors in the Andes,
even the taboo against cannibalism was set aside to stave off
starvation.
Yet courage and endurance illuminate all these events. In an age
of rapidly changing values they are qualities which command
constant and universal respect. They are virtues for all ages and for
all time, the world over. When I was thirteen, it was the news of the
deaths of Mallory and Irvine on Everest which made me want to
climb. It was with that and other early memories in mind that I
wrote in my book The Ascent of Everest: “Ultimately, the justification
for climbing Everest, if any justification is needed, will lie in the
seeking of their ‘Everests’ by others, stimulated by this event as we
were inspired by others before us.”
There is no doubt that this has happened many times in the thirty
years since we first climbed that mountain. It is also true that among
any group of explorers or others who court high risks, it is always the
example of one or two in their membership that provides the
inspiration. In a long life, during which I have experienced more
than my share of adventures, I have often had reason to be grateful
to companions whose conduct has given me the resolve to follow
their example. This power of example is marvellously illustrated in
Endurance, about the explorer Ernest Shackleton, in The Naked Island,
about British and Australian prisoners of war in Japanese hands, and
in Survive the Savage Sea, about an ordinary family shipwrecked in the
Pacific. They all show how leadership by example can enable a
whole group of individuals to survive in desperate situations.
Leadership, and the teamwork it creates, are often a condition of
courage and endurance.
Some people, however, stand out as “loners”, whether it be by
choice or force of circumstance. Their heroism is enhanced by the
fact that they face their risks and crises on their own. Such people
include those who have to come to terms with death by grave illness;
notwithstanding the support of loved ones and physicians, they have
to face that prospect, at the end, alone. Anyone like Bob Champion
in Champion’s Story, who, by sheer willpower, laid hold on life and
mastered his fate, leaves me feeling humbled by his courage. Violette
Szabo, heroine of Carve Her Name with Pride, who was executed in
1945 after: running appalling risks as an agent of our Special
Operations Executive in France, displayed the same degree of lonely
courage in different circumstances. Gladys Aylward was also a
“loner” who faced death, time and again, as a missionary in China
during the stormy years of that country’s civil wars and the Japanese
invasion. Her story, as told in The Small Woman, shows that spiritual
faith is one powerful source from which moral strength, and thus
courage and endurance, may spring. Her faith gave her a selfless
caring for others-a quality also poignantly, and very differently,
illustrated in 83 Hours Till Dawn, in which two parents were kept in
agonized suspense by the threat of their daughter’s imminent murder
at the hands of brutal kidnappers.
I have left until the last two stories with which I can claim special
connections, One of these is High Adventure. Ed Hillary was one of my
companions on Everest in 1953; in a certain sense that was, for both
of us, our highest adventure. With Ed I soon became aware that to
dare, to seek excitement through taking risks, was in the very nature
of this remarkable man. He has since gone on to do great work for
the Sherpa people which reveals that he, too, had that quality of
caring for others to add to his own courage and stamina.
Finally I turn to The White Nile. As president of the Royal
Geographical Society when it celebrated its l50th anniversary in
1980, I was in a special position to review its history of exploration:
in particular, those amazing journeys which revealed to western
knowledge the secrets of Africa. It seems scarcely possible that, little
more than a hundred years ago, in a century of growing materialism,
people from the sophisticated western world should have endured so
much in pursuit of so materially unrewarding a goal as the source of
a river. True, for some fame was the spur, fOI: others like Livingstone,
it was the promotion of “commerce and Christianity”. But for all of
them there was a burning need to know. In Sir Richard Burton, I
have a distant relationship on my mother’s side of the family. I take
some pride in this connection, both because of and despite certain
less admirable characteristics which complement his great achieve-
ments. I find him reassuringly human, and I admire him despite his
jealousy over the discovery of the sources of the Nile by others than
himself.
Throughout The White Nile we are reminded of the simple truth .
that explorers are not gods but mere mortals, prone to meanness and
pretentious pride, along with those qualities which excite our
admiration. I believe it is important to be reminded that those who
greatly dare, and endure against all the odds, are not a race apart.
After reading these two volumes I asked myself: what attracts me
to these and other tales of courage and endurance? And why do the
examples in these stories give me a glimmer of hope about the shape
of things to come? I suggest that it is because they show the human
capacity for greatness in times of trial and danger. This will, I am
sure, stand humanity in good stead in the critical years ahead.
Lord Hunt of Llanfair Waterdine, KG, CBE, DSO
Highway Cottage, Aston,
Henley-on- Thames, Oxfordshire.
Contents
7
INTRODUCTION
by The Lord Hunt
of Llanfair Waterdine, KG, CBE, DSO
13
THE WlDTE NILE
THE EXPLORATION OF THE GREAT RIVER
by Alan Moorehead
99
THE NAKED ISLAND
by Russell Braddon
217
mGH ADVENTURE
by Edmund Hillary
315
83 HOURS TILL DAWN
by Gene Miller with BarbaraJane Mackle
417
ALIVE
THE STORY OF THE ANDES SUR VIVORS
by Piers Paul Read
Hardback
In good to very good preloved condition with cream coloured pages
510 pages