A Himalayan mystery – solved?

You are tent-bound in the mountains, in a storm. Time to read a good book. Will it be British mountaineer George Mallory's choice: Shakespeare? Or Dostoevsky, the favourite of another mountain-loving Briton, Bill Tilman. Heavy stuff, both of them. For a lighter read, try W E Bowman's hilarious mountaineering satire, The Ascent of Rum Doodle. First published in 1956, Rum Doodle is now on The Guardian's list of '1000 Novels Everyone Must Read' and among Colorado-based publisher Chessler's '100 Best Mountaineering Books'. It has been called 'an epic', 'Homeric',' inspiring' and 'very, very funny'.

A team of fictitious 1950s-era British climbers set out to climb the world's highest peak, the 40,000½ foot Rum Doodle, in a country called Yogistan. As you read the book, you will recognise Yogistan as a thinly veiled Nepal. And, once you finish, you will remember Binder, the book's narrator and expedition leader – naïve, always rationalising, and clueless; Prone, the doctor – always ill; Jungle, the route finder – always lost; and Constant, diplomat and linguist – always arguing. There is also Wish, the expedition scientist; Burley, head of the commissariat; and the photographer, Shute, who never actually succeeds in taking any pictures.