Sensitive Subject

Gisborne-born adventurer Graeme Dingle has said British author Jeffrey Archer is “dreaming” after Archer claimed that George Mallory, not Edmund Hillary, was the first to reach the summit of Everest. Archer’s new book Paths of Glory, is a fictionalised account of the life of George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924, 29 years before Hillary climbed the world’s tallest peak with Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Dingle said Archer was reflecting wounded English pride at having been beaten by a colonial: “The English were desperate to get to the top, and they didn’t get there, even in 1953. I think the English are pretty sensitive about it.”