'Bold, innovative and inspirational.' Peter Gillman, introduction

George Leigh Mallory was the only climber to take part in all three of the British pioneering expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s. Born in 1886, he died a few days short of his 38th birthday, while making a summit attempt with his young companion, Andrew Irvine. Mallory was the son of a clergyman, an idealist and a romantic, and he was married with three small children. A schoolmaster by profession, he switched in 1923 from teaching boys to teaching adults, which he found very rewarding. During the Great War of 1914-18 he had served at the front as a gunner. He was a neat and bold rock climber and a competent ice climber, but his greatest assets were vivacity and a love of adventure. He would seize the moment and encourage his fellow climbers to follow. If he had a weakness, it was the failure to recognize when he had given enough. He was charismatic and absent-minded, which may have proved a fatal flaw.