How The English Made The Alps

Description

Published by John Murray, London, 2000, 1st UK Edition, D/w, Fine.   Jim Ring tells the story of the English love affair with the Alps, from its beginnings in the early Romantic period of Byron and Shelley through the 1850’s and 1860’s and the formation of the Alpine Club to the inter-war years when the English ‘invented’ and then popularised downhill ski-ing.  Its rivalries include the Matterhorn ‘race’ in 1865 and the one between Thomas Cook and Henry Lunn who dominated early travel to the Alps.  Part history, part biography, the book concentrates on the characters – artists, scientists, gentleman-adventurers, aristocrats, eccentrics and mountaineers.