Being a serial adventurer myself, I was immediately drawn to the story when Lord Hunt and Norgay Tenzing (the first man to successfully climb Everest) revealed how they had examined aerial photos taken by the pilots in 1933 to identify the best routes to the top. Due diligence came no higher!
After spending time on square-rigged ships, I was impressed that the heroine of my story, Lucy Houston, had bought the beautiful steam yacht Liberty which had been built for Joseph Pulitzer, one of Americas's enduring and prominent leaders.
My lawyer in Century City advised me write the story and then Oscar winner screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) added valuable impetus because his relative had led the 1933 flight expedition.
Once I started on my archive hunt, there was no stopping me. I went to all the original locations: Houses of Parliament, Westland aircraft factory, RAF Museum, Kinrara (Lucy Houston's priceless estate in Scotland), the Maharaja of Jodhpur's hunting lodge, the Terai jungle and then the foothills of Everest. In the photographic archive of The Times in London, I found a box of precious photographs which described the rest of the story.
From a junkyard for retired RAF aircraft, we found the wreck of the only surviving biplane which is helping us finalise manufacture of a new Everest-enabled biplane (Lucy2). For this associated venture, I am supported by highly experienced professional British and American pilots who agree, like many of the world's 500,000 pilots, that touring the Himalayan peaks in a single engine open double winger riding invisible currents as wild as Hawaiian surf is no place for scaredy-cats!
Along the fascinating turns on my journey, many significant film professionals have urged me to continue. Sadly I'm no natural author. I did not study English when I was at Oxford University so the finer points of literature may be missing in my text, but hopefully the story will give great credence to those who can admire the 35 men under Lucy Houston's patronage who created a unique moment in Everest's history.
I turned to Amazon for publishing my novel and am pleased that I did so.
EVEN HIGHER THAN EVEREST is a vastly entertaining, fact-based, yet dramatized story of a London cockney heiress who, in the 1930s, sent a small fleet of double winger biplanes on a daring and remarkably dangerous mission to fly over Mt. Everest and film the world’s highest and most famous mountain peak.
Author George Almond met the Himalayan heroes (Sherpa Tenzing and Lord Hunt), who explained how the first aerial photographs, taken in 1933, assisted their heroic ascent of Everest in 1953. Captivated by this dazzling and little known tale, the book - Even Higher than Everest - is a dramatized recount of the tenacity of the heiress Lucy Houston and her team of prestigious aviators whose five aircraft flew to the world's highest mountains. A short 1930s film from footage of Houston’s flight, titled Wings Over Everest, won an Oscar in 1936 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_Over_Everest
Commenting on his work, author George Almond says: “Inspired by true events of that first flight over Everest, the novel Even Higher Than Everest follows skilled personnel in finance, diplomacy, media, filming, engineering and aviation, all aiming for a shared objective. How these characters blended successfully, overcoming constant setbacks and challenges, was in itself a major accomplishment. I have followed the truth, tweaking just a few elements, in recounting the event.”
PRAISE:
“Yay, George Almond! You DID it! You delivered a fine story- -and a fun story- -with your Higher Than Everest dramatization. I loved many aspects about this book. You had me on the edge of my seat with the actual flights over the Himalayas. I could SEE the mountains in my mind's eye and could feel the tension and the dangers they faced.” - Amazon (Marla Bray)
Even Higher Than Everest is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Even-Higher-Than-Everest-Dramatised/dp/1782226249.
George Almond, the grandson of a Wyoming horse rancher, enjoys revisiting great adventures. Born in London and educated in France and Oxford University he has ridden horseback 1500 miles across Europe, worked for Calgary Stampede's Champion Chuck Wagon driver, sailed two oceans with the world's most experienced square-rig sea captain, taken the Flying Scotsman steam train from Boston to Houston where he was hired by Neiman Marcus. These days Almond makes his home in Europe, working on other books, including one about Jack Rackham and his two lady pirates who formerly sailed the Caribbean, preying upon merchant vessels.
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