W H Murray

W.H. Murray is one of Britain's most significant mountain writers. Born in Liverpool in 1913, he soon moved to Glasgow, where he was later introduced Scotland's mountains. His pioneering early climbs in the 1930s came to a halt at the outbreak of World War Two, in which he saw combat in Africa before being captured as a Nazi prisoner of war. He spent three years as a captive, but was not idle, devoting much of his time to philosophical study and meditation. It is during this time he wrote his...See more

W.H. Murray is one of Britain's most significant mountain writers. Born in Liverpool in 1913, he soon moved to Glasgow, where he was later introduced Scotland's mountains. His pioneering early climbs in the 1930s came to a halt at the outbreak of World War Two, in which he saw combat in Africa before being captured as a Nazi prisoner of war. He spent three years as a captive, but was not idle, devoting much of his time to philosophical study and meditation. It is during this time he wrote his classic Mountaineering in Scotland not once, but twice on toilet paper. After his release he went on to complete three expeditions to the Himalaya in the 1950s. One of these, his 1951 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, established a route up Everest via the Khumbu Icefall, paving the way for the first ascent in 1953. The remainder of Murray's life was devoted to writing about and conserving the wild places he loved. A founding member of both the Scottish Countryside Activities Council and the John Muir Trust, he also acted as advisor on mountain properties for the National Trust for Scotland, and was President for both the Mountaineering Council for Scotland and the Scottish Mountaineering Club. He was a prolific writer, publishing twenty books and countless articles. These include the classics Mountaineering in Scotland and Undiscovered Scotland, as well as his autobiography, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, for which he posthumously won the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival 2002. These remarkable achievements ensured that he continues to inspire readers old and new to this day. See less