Alex Roddie

Alex Roddie has written a cracking adventure - and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert star!

The Atholl Expedition

Amazon.com The Atholl Expedition

My review - 

Alex Roddie has created a tale consisting of a number of stories interwoven. Two of his characters are Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, taking their holidays on the Duke of Atholl’s estate.  This was at the time when the famous rows between the two had died down but there was still some disagreement about certain things – like being home on your birthday! – to provide narrative tension. The Duke has threatened one of his ghillies with the loss of his job and his cottage if he can’t provide the Prince with a famous stag to bring home as a trophy. The ghillie’s son works with his father but yearns to break away. Forbes, a geologist, wants to follow up reports of a glacier in Scotland, but had to cross the Duke of Atholl’s land and the Duke is famously against trespassers. There’s all this and more here and it’s a very interesting read.

I have always admired the author’s approach to descriptive writing. It’s not easy to do without sounding florid but his descriptions of storms, or of the mountains themselves, are studies in the careful choice of words. I love this style and I very much enjoyed the adventure story aspect of this book.

Alex Roddie

I've just read the book to which Crowley's Rival (see earlier post) is a prequel.  This is a wonderful idea.  It takes real historical figures, combines them with invented characters, puts them in a situation which might have happened and then stands back for the fireworks!

The Only Genuine Jones


Amazon .com  The Only Genuine Jones

My review - 

This is an imaginary account which is based around a number of real people.  The main character, Owen Glynne Jones (the Only Genuine Jones) was a real person but much of the action of the story is fictional  It has a number of themes, including a rivalry between Jones and Aleister Crowley, the disputes between the traditionalists of mountain climbing (we do it this way because we’ve always done it this way) and the progressives.  The latter were prepared to use shorter-handled, curved ice axes and crampons with forward facing points, which made previously impossible mountains climbable.

The story isn’t all blow-by-blow accounts of accents, however.  There is a good deal of the social history of the times as the book deals with the fact that wealthy gentleman climbers and talented, poorer people were able to climb together in friendship.  The mountains are great levellers. There are dodgy business dealings here, patent-stealing, double-crossing, potential polygamy, murder – and all this, with added mountains!  Alex Roddie’s writing is elegant and accessible and the story reaches a gripping climax.  I found this book enthralling.

Alex Roddie

Another new author to me and I found some of his descriptive writing quite sparky.  He's good at characters too, even in a short story like this one.

Crowley's Rival

Amazon .com  Crowley's Rival

My review -

This is my first venture into the world of Alex Roddie; a world of historical mountaineering adventures. I feel precarious here. I wear flat shoes and I occasionally fall off kerb edges! However, I soon discovered when reading this short story, that there is much more to his writing than the mechanics and techniques of mountain climbing. This story - a precursor to a full length novel, gives us a meeting between two great mountain climbers who immediately struck up an antipathy. Each was egotistical and cocky about his prowess and each was sure he was the best.

The characters, within the limits of a short story, were well developed. I can see why they disliked one another. I wouldn't have taken to either! Their enmity was strong enough to put other lives in danger. Apart from the interpersonal relationships we see here, there's a great deal to be admired in the writing. It's never less than competent and in places, it glows. It's easy to be swept up in Alex Roddie's admiration for the solitude of high places, the grandeur and beauty of the long views and the sound of rushing water. A short read, but a great one.