Storms of Silence

After I read this book, the first thing I wanted to do was email Simpson and compliment him for his courage. Not the I-climb-mountains-and-fall-off-them kind of courage, but the guts for opening his heart. This book is a lot more than another mountaineering account (if that's what you're looking for, this one is not for you): it is about a person sharing his innermost fears, thoughts and feelings with the reader. Although it's interspersed with mountain climbing in typical Simpson style -- stories well told --, what really shines through are Simpson's views on the Tibetan peoples' plight, something he feels strongly about. I was deeply touched by Storms of Silence, and somewhat surprised by the author's departure from his usual topics. I really liked reading it, and I think it showed a side of Simpson most people never even imagined he had.

This book is less entartaining than his other ones, but in fact it is not intended as a substitute, but as a complement for the other ones. We havefor instance the poetic description of skinhead bully and the clash in the pub, a typical Simpson story, multiplicity of climbing, and the complete study of Simpson's face and the consequences of using his mimics. Apart from these Simpsonites, the book itself is a treatise on Tibet, once a peaceful, free country - the Roof of the World. Read that and understand what you did not want to know. It would be fun to read this book before or after seeing "Seven Years in Tibet".

Simpson continues his climbing adventures but delves a little deeper into his own conscience this time, reflecting on his decision to climb Cho Oyu with the brutality of the Chinese in Tibet uppermost on his mind; and from the summit of Peru's Huascaran, looks down on the barrenness of the once bustling 18,000-strong town of Yungay, devastated by the earthquake-induced landslide of May 1970. This is a more hypocrisy-accepting Simpson, and for this and his own new awareness of the plight of Tibet, well worth the read.