WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021’One of the best books ever written about the early attempts to conquer Everest. A fine, fine slice of history by a truly special writer who proves time and time again that he is among the best of his generation’ Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets’A small classic of the biographer’s art’ Sunday TimesIn the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit – all utterly alone. Wilson didn’t know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. But he had pluck, daring and a vision – he wanted to be the first man to stand on top of the world. Maurice Wilson is a man written out of the history b