Vertebrate Publishing
  • 01142679277
  • info_AT_v-publishing_DOT_co_DOT_uk
  • Login
  • Basket
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • Books
  • About
  • News
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Submissions
Join Our Mailing List

Sign up to be the first to find out about pre-order and special edition offers, author events, freebies, and receive an additional 5% off your order ... 

Don’t Show Again
  • Home
  • » Books
  • » H.W. Tilman: The Collected Edition
  • » Mostly Mischief
  • Look Inside with Issuu
  • Share Join Us Follow Us

Mostly Mischief

Including the first ascent of a mountain to start below sea level


£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-909461-28-4
216 pages
Author
H.W. Tilman
Publication date
16 Jun 2016
  • Description
  • Author
  • Specification
  • Reviews

'However many times it has been done, the act of casting off the warps and letting go one’s last hold of the shore at the start of a voyage has about it something solemn and irrevocable, like marriage, for better or for worse.’

Mostly Mischief’s ordinary title belies four more extraordinary voyages made by H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman covering almost 25,000 miles in both Arctic and Antarctic waters.

The first sees the pilot cutter Mischief retracing the steps of Elizabethan explorer John Davis to the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. Tilman and a companion land on the north coast and make the hazardous crossing of Bylot Island while the remainder of the crew make the eventful passage to the southern shore to recover the climbing party. Back in England, Tilman refuses to accept the condemnation of Mischief’s surveyor, undertaking costly repairs before heading back to sea for a first encounter with the East Greenland ice.

Between June 1964 and September 1965, Tilman is at sea almost without a break. Two eventful voyages to East Greenland in Mischief provide the entertaining bookends to his account of the five-month voyage in the Southern Ocean as skipper of the schooner Patanela. Tilman had been hand-picked by the expedition leader as the navigator best able to land a team of Australian and New Zealand climbers and scientists on Heard Island, a tiny volcanic speck in the Furious Fifties devoid of safe anchorages and capped by an unclimbed glaciated peak. In a separate account of this successful voyage, Colin Putt describes the expedition as unique—the first ascent of a mountain to start below sea level.

ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK: 

Kindle UK

Kindle USA

Kobo

Nook

iBooks

Harold William ‘Bill’ Tilman (1898–1977) was among the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering mountaineer and sailor who held exploration above all else. Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI.

After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi – the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, he delved into Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor and he explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration.

It was perhaps logical then that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief – not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years Tilman sailed Mischief and her successors to Patagonia, where he crossed the vast ice cap, and to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh. He made trips to Greenland, Spitsbergen and the South Shetlands, before disappearing in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1977.

  • Title: Mostly Mischief 
  • Sub-title: Including the first ascent of a mountain to start below sea level
  • Author: H.W. Tilman
  • Imprint: Tilman
  • ISBN: 9781909461284
  • Rights: Worldwide
  • Publication date: 16 June 2016
  • Edition: New Edition
  • Foreword: Roger D. Taylor
  • Afterword: Philip Temple
  • Classicication: Sailing (WSSN3); Classic travel writing (WTLC); Autobiography: general (BGA); Climbing and mountaineering (WSZG); Greenland (1MTNG); Arctic regions (1MTN); North Atlantic (1QSAN); Southern Ocean (1QSS)
  • Size: 216mm x 156mm
  • Extent: 216 pages, black and white text and photographs
  • Weight: 365g
  • Cover: Paperback
  • Retail price: £12.00

 

Also available as an ebook:

  • Imprint: Vertebrate Digital
  • ISBN: 9781909461291
  • Publication Date: 1 July 2016
  • Price: 4.99
'An excellent introduction to Tilman's maverick adventuring.'
John Wright, Geographical

Other Titles You Might Like

Mischief in Greenland
Mischief in Greenland
Mischief in Greenland is a treasure trove of Tilman’s wit. He pulls no punches with regard to occasional ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
When Men and Mountains Meet
When Men and Mountains Meet
First published in 1946, the scope of H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman’s When Men & Mountains Meet is broad, ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
The Ascent of Nanda Devi cover
The Ascent of Nanda Devi
In 1934, after fifty years of trying, mountaineers finally gained access to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
Snow on the Equator cover
Snow on the Equator
First published in 1937, Snow on the Equator chronicles Tilman’s early adventures; his transition from ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
Mischief in Patagonia
Mischief in Patagonia
Mischief in Patagonia follows H.W. Tilman's voyage on his across the Patagonian ice cap. Filled with ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
Mischief among the Penguins
Mischief among the Penguins
Mischief among the Penguins is H.W. Tilman's account of his voyage to the Southern Ocean island groups ...
£ 9.60 £9.60 each £ 12.00 full price
  • Join UsJoin Us
  • Follow Us Follow Us
  • View Us View Us
  • See Us See Us
  • Watch Us Watch Us
  • Read Us Read Us
  • Delivery and Returns
  • Privacy Policy
  • Trade Information
  • Terms and Conditions
  • About Us
  • Submissions
  • V-Publishing Blog
  • News

Join our mailing list

Website by Little Fire Digital

© Vertebrate Publishing Ltd 2021