Join us at 6pm on November 1, 2016 for an evening with British writer Harry Farthing who will be giving a dynamic presentation at the Calhoun County Museum and Cultural Center on the personal experiences that led him to write his novel, Summit. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer dialogue with those in attendance. Copies of Summit will be available for purchase and signing at the event thanks to Swift Books of Orangeburg, SC. Admission is free, but seating is limited, so please contact Melissa Moise McLeod at the Calhoun County Library at 803-655-6306 or by e-mail at mmcleod@calhouncountylibrary.org to reserve seats.
About the book
In the autumn of 1938 Germany’s Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, is growing frustrated at the British using their regional power in India to block passage of an SS expedition to Tibet. Determined to spite them, he plots to steal something the British hold dear and have failed for the seventh time that spring to achieve – a first summit of Mount Everest. Seventy years later, seasoned mountain guide Neil Quinn's ninth visit to the top of the world’s highest mountain in the charge of the sixteen-year old son of a Long Island billionaire begins to unravel. As a desperate fight for their lives begins in the freezing air high above Tibet, Quinn stumbles across a clue to a story that questions everything he thinks he knows about the great mountain. When the bitter aftermath of Quinn’s disastrous climb turns to violent tragedy in Kathmandu, his discovery pushes him into a relentless journey that takes him from the dangerous heights of Everest to the equally treacherous margins of a new Europe where history hungers to repeat itself. Amidst a rich and diverse cast of characters, each with their own reason to possess the mystery of his discovery, Neil Quinn has to fight, increasingly desperately, for order and the truth. In doing so, he reveals an older story of man and mountain to its shocking conclusion.
About the author
Harry Farthing is an Englishman born in 1964 in Lynton, North Devon, and raised in the West Country. He was educated at St. Michael’s Preparatory School, near Barnstaple, Allhallows Public School, near Lyme Regis, and at the University of the West of England in Bristol. From 1987 he enjoyed a successful career with one of the world's largest commercial real estate consultancies. During this period, he lived and worked in the City of London, Lisbon, Portugal and Milan, Italy, becoming Managing Director of the company's Italian operations and European Board Director with responsibility for activities in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar. In 2010 he took early retirement to move with his American wife to Charleston, South Carolina, and pursue a career in writing.
Harry Farthing has had a lifelong interest in exploration, archaeology and world history, both published and alternate. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has travelled widely to extreme environments such as the Sahara Desert, the Himalaya, the Amazon and the Arctic North. An experienced mountaineer, he has climbed extensively, including Mt Blanc and the Matterhorn in the Alps, Mt McKinley in Alaska, Shishapangma, the highest mountain in Tibet, and Mount Everest itself. In 2010 he successfully led all thirteen members of a charity climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro in Africa. In 2011 he made a solo 7,500 mile journey across North America by BMW Motorcycle that linked the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Oceans and travelled 2,000 miles of unpaved roads above the 60th Parallel. That trip was the latest in a series of extreme motorcycle journeys that started with a ride from the UK to the Moroccan Sahara when he was just nineteen.
His debut novel, Summit, marries his knowledge of world travel, adventure sports, mountaineering and modern history to create an exciting action story that is both compelling and thought provoking. A sequel about Africa and the continent's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, is already in the pipeline.
