"Writer, broadcaster and historian Julie Summers, Everest pioneer Andrew Irvine's great niece and biographer, will bring alive one of the most exciting stories linked to Mount Everest.

Set in the Edwardian era, when the conquest of the mountain represented the last, great challenge of exploration after both the poles had been discovered, it evokes the mood of the early twentieth century and of British climbing at the time of the First World War."

The 22-year-old Irvine was George Mallory's climbing partner on their acclaimed but fatal first ascent of the great mountain. Neither made it back down and it is not known for certain whether they made the summit.