Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-350) and index.

Machine generated contents note: pt. I To Live as on a Mountain -- 1.The Lakes -- 2.The Steamship and the Spinning Wheel -- 3.Bengali Baboo -- 4.The Thrust Fault -- 5.Triangles -- 6.The School of Art -- pt. II The Impersonal Eye -- 7.Perfect Monsters -- 8.Goddess Mother of the World -- 9.I Spy -- 10.The Moscow Agent -- 11.In the Ice Mountains -- 12.Taking a Hat off a Mouse -- 13.The Truth about Love -- pt. III The Fall of the Gods -- 14.Somewhere a Strange and Shrewd Tomorrow -- 15.The Magnified Earth -- 16.A Representative Indian -- 17.An Infinite Ocean of Sorrow -- 18.A Boy Falling Out of the Sky -- 19.Incompatible Gods, Irreconcilable Differences -- 20.Night Falls.

John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalayas. Michael Spender was the first to survey the northern approach to the summit of Mount Everest. While their younger brothers - W.H Auden and Stephen Spender - achieved literary fame, they vied for a place on an expedition that would finally conquer Everest, a quest that had become a metaphor for Britain's efforts to maintain power over India. To this rivalry was added another: in the summer of 1938 both men fell in love with a painter named Nancy Sharp. Her choice would determine each man's wartime loyalties.

Also issued online.