Joe Simpson (mountaineer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joe Simpson (born 13 August 1960) is a mountaineer and author. He was made famous by his book Touching the Void (winner of the 1988 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature and subsequently made into a movie) in which he described a successful but disastrous and near-fatal attempt by himself and Simon Yates to climb Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. Has also survived many other major accidents, notably breaking his other leg in the Himalaya while climbing with Mal Duff. His later non-fiction books describe other expeditions including an attempt on the North Face of the Eiger, and his changing feeling towards extreme mountaineering brought on by the many deaths that surround the pursuit.
Incidentally, Simpson reports in his book 'Touching the Void' that he was motivated to save his life in part by a fear of dying with the cheery song "Brown Girl in the Ring" by Boney M stuck in his head.[1][2]
[edit] Bibliography
- Touching the Void ISBN 0-09-945229-4
- Dark Shadows Falling ISBN 0-09-975611-0
- Storms of Silence ISBN 0-09-957811-5
- This Game of Ghosts ISBN 0-09-938011-0
- The Beckoning Silence ISBN 0-09-942243-3
- The Water People (fiction) ISBN 0-349-10349-6
