Spy on the Roof of the World [Anglais] [Broché]

In this cross between a travel adventure story and an espionage novel, Sydney Wignall tells how he became an ad hoc spy for a renegade faction of Indian intelligence operatives in 1955. Wignall had set out to climb the highest mountain in Tibet, but was recruited to investigate Chinese military activity in the region. After being caught, he spent months in a rat-infested, sub-freezing cell as he underwent interrogation. When international pressure forced his release, his captors "released" him and two companions in a nearly impenetrable wintertime wilderness and said "Go home." Yet Wignall survived--and managed to smuggle out vital information. It is an exhilarating story that only now can be told. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

While organizing a Himalayan expedition in 1955 to climb Tibet's highest peak, Welsh mountaineer Wignall was recruited as a spy by India's secret service. This exhilarating account of his espionage, arrest by Chinese communists, several weeks' imprisonment in a rat-infested Tibetan jail and harrowing escape over a never-before-scaled Himalayan gorge is at once a thrilling real-life spy tale, a serendipitous adventure and an ethnographic travelogue. It is laced with intrigue, close escapes from death, breathtaking vistas and affectionate observations of the Tibetan people surviving under draconian Chinese rule. Wignall, who displays acerbic wit and a flair for storytelling, obtained proof of China's Tibetan military buildup for an attack on India-intelligence ignored by India's Prime Minister Nehru, who befriended the supposedly "anti-imperialist" Mao Tse-tung until China's invasion of northern India in 1962. In prison, Wignall endured solitary confinement and kept a diary that he hid in an inflatable mattress. Decked with sketches from his trek-a mission he was prohibited from divulging for 25 years-his book condemns the West for allowing China's cultural and physical genocide of Tibet. He notes ominously that China is now building a strategic highway to Nepal-an easy means for a future invasion that would give Chinese troops direct access to India. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Succeeds on many levels: adventure yarn, travelogue, Orwellian farce-all told with candor and humor.

In 1955, Sydney Wignall organized the Welsh Himalayan expedition to climb Tibet's highest mountain, Gurla Mandhata. But Wignall and two of his companions were more than just mountaineers; before setting out, Wignall had been recruited by a covert faction within Indian intelligence to report on Chinese military operations in newly invaded Tibet. Wignall and his band of unlikely spies were soon captured and imprisoned by the Red Army, thus beginning an ordeal that would draw on their last reserves of physical and emotional strength. Subjected to rat-infested, subfreezing cells and months of torturous interrogation, Wignall and his colleagues refused to allow their spirits to be broken. Ultimately, international pressure convinced the Chinese to release the three spies. But instead of being flown safely home, they were ordered to return via the Seti Gorge in the middle of winter, a deadly Himalayan pass considered suicidal even in summer. Their bodies wracked with frostbite and dysentery, their final trek to freedom is an amazing testament to their will to survive. (6 X 9, 304 pages, b&w photos, maps)

In 1955 Sydney Wignall led the Welsh Himalayan expedition to climb Tibet's highest mountain, Gural Mandhata. Not long into their journey the men were captured and imprisoned by the People's Liberation Army of the Republic of China. In this riveting account, Wignall tells of the incredible courage, humor, and ingenuity that enabled the group to survive. of photos. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

In 1955, Sydney Wignall organized the Welsh Himalayan expedition to climb Tibet's highest mountain, Gurla Mandhata. But Wignall and two of his companions were more than just mountaineers; before setting out, Wignall had been recruited by a covert faction within Indian intelligence to report on Chinese military operations in newly invaded Tibet. Wignall and his band of unlikely spies were soon captured and imprisoned by the Red Army, thus beginning an ordeal that would draw on their last reserves of physical and emotional strength. Subjected to rat-infested, subfreezing cells and months of torturous interrogation, Wignall and his colleagues refused to allow their spirits to be broken. Ultimately, international pressure convinced the Chinese to release the three spies. But instead of being flown safely home, they were ordered to return via the Seti Gorge in the middle of winter, a deadly Himalayan pass considered suicidal even in summer. Their bodies wracked with frostbite and dysentery, their final trek to freedom is an amazing testament to their will to survive. (6 X 9, 304 pages, b&w photos, maps)

Sydney Wignall, an explorer for more than thirty years, is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and a member of the Himalayan Club.