Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is a novel by the English writer Jeffrey Archer, published in 2009. It is based on the life of George Mallory, the climber who died on Everest in the 1920s, and it puts forward the case that he reached the summit.

The book follows Mallory from Cambridge and the Alps to the three expeditions he joined on the north side of Everest, and it builds its story from the people around him: Ruth, the wife he married and left for months at a time, and the teachers, patrons and climbing partners who made his career possible. Among those partners are Geoffrey Winthrop Young, who was his mentor in the climbing world, the Australian climber George Finch, who was his rival for a place on the expeditions, and Sandy Irvine, who climbed with him on the last attempt. Mallory disappeared on the mountain in 1924, and the novel argues in fictional form that the two men got to the top before they died, which would put them ahead of the successful expedition of 1953.

The claim was well known long before the novel, and its publication drew complaints in New Zealand from readers who regarded it as a slight on the climbers who came afterwards.