Nothing Ventured, Nothing Win

This is Sir Ed Hillary's autobiography, written in 1975, (with an updated epilogue in 1988) and written in the typical understated way we come to expect from a very humble man. He is at least moderately gentle on the faults of others (with a few exceptions), yet picks fault in his own thoughts and actions and readily owns up to them.I enjoyed reading about his early life and time in the NZRAF, spending time in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, mostly training and performing search and rescue unrelated to the war. If I had known he was in the RAF (as a navigator) I had forgotten, but I suspect this was something I was unaware of. It was nice to read about some of the experienced people in mountaineering that Hillary looked up to as well, famous names in the NZ mountaineering scene, but unlikely to be known outside our shores - Harry Ayers and Mick Bowie, for example.With a chapter to each section of Hillary's life (European Alps; The Himalayas; Prelude to Everest; Top of the World; Aftermath of Everest; etc, although three chapters are dedicated to the Trans-Antarctica Expedition) this book does well to concentrate the story of each of his major achievements, where other books (by Hillary and others) go into greater detail on these individually - a strength in a book looking to summarise.The writing is largely pretty simple, and perhaps Sir Ed doesn't have the flair for writing an exciting adventure book, but it fits with his personality that he isn't going to overdramatise an event, and for me I engage with his laid back factual approach with simple analysis. He adds anecdotes that are simple but amusing, and doesn't mind a wry dig at someone who he feels deserves it. Fuch's is probably the one who gets the most needling, as their relationship was never very stable. As an example of his wry dig where Fuch's looked to pioneer a new sea route against the advice of the captain, page 229 (my edition):During the next two days we weren't successful in moving and inch for the heavy pack had set solidly around us. [...] Our explosive experts set off four small charges around the ship, but there still wasn't any movement. I think we all accepted now that Bunny's route was a failure and all we could hope to do was escape to the north into open water and try the traditional route further east. It didn't help to know the Royal Society's Tottan which was also establishing a base in the Weddell Sea had found open water and easy going along the coast [...] It must have been a tough time for Bunny - I couldn't help admiring his stubborn refusal to admit any loss of confidence or to show the slightest sign of weakness Ouch!After Antarctica, the narrative gets a little slower (as, I suppose did life for Sir Ed) and he spent time on lecture tours, minor expeditions and family holidays before finding his next mission of schools, air fields and then a hospital in Nepal. Another trip to Antarctica, then back to Nepal, this time with Hamilton jet boats to jet up several rivers in Nepal! (This turned out to be a trial for his epic jetboats-up-the-Ganges in a future book. Even approaching fifty years of age Hillary was still lining up new ways to keep himself involved in pioneering exploration. He wraps up in his final chapter with a positive outlook for his family and looking to new ways to contribute. If anything this autobiography peters out a bit towards the end after the big events of Hillary's life.The epilogue however, is added to this edition in 1987, after the event of the plane crash which took Sir Ed's wife Louise and youngest daughter Belinda. And so Hillary explains that he took time to deal with that, and was by this point the New Zealand High Commissioner in India.There was one quote in the epilogue that i thought was very “Sir Ed”.The media had created a heroic figure ‘Sir Edmund Hillary - the great Explorer and Humanitarian' and nothing I could do seemed to be able to stop it. I tried to present a more accurate picture of myself as an enthusiastic individual with modest abilities. Indeed I sometimes felt embarrassed at the prestige I seemed to be accumulating... And that, of course, is the reason he was held in that prestige.For those interested in the overall story as a once over, Hillary's autobiography is probably a good read. He has, of course written many other books, specific to his expeditions or undertakings, and I would recommend those to readers who are interested. There are also biographies of Hillary, most recently by his good friend Michael Gill ([b:Edmund Hillary - A Biography: The extraordinary life of the beekeeper who climbed Everest 44083424 Edmund Hillary - A Biography The extraordinary life of the beekeeper who climbed Everest Michael Gill https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550778842l/44083424.SX50.jpg 68551650]), who also wrote the very good Himalayan Hospitals.For me 3.5 stars, rounded up.