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There is a mathematical law which explains why you wait for ages for a bus to turn up and then two appear at the same time. This may be of small comfort to Fergus Fleming, whose Killing Dragons, a thoroughly engaging story of how the Alps were conquered--primarily by the British, has had some of its thunder stolen by another book, Jim Ring's equally excellent How The British Made the Alps which was published a month earlier. Inevitably the two books cover similar ground, but Fleming should not be too disappointed at not having cracked the market first as the Alps are his natural stomping ground. Fleming came to prominence last year with the publication of Barrow's Boys, the story of how the Navy sought to justify its budget in peacetime by organising a series of quasi-scientific expeditions to increasingly remote locations, and Killing Dragons is a natural successor. Fleming has a natural affinity for charming, buccaneering eccentrics and there are more than enough on offer here. He starts, understandably enough, with the early pioneers and the first ascent of Mont Blanc by Balmat and Paccard in 1786; this is chattily written and good fun with it, but the book steps up a gear with the arrival of the Brits, such as Tyndall and Whymper. In the early days of Alpine climbing, scientific endeavour was felt to be far more important than the conquest of the peaks, but the Brits stripped away these pretensions and turned the Alps into an adventure playground where rivalries were played out in the pursuit of glory. Fleming strikes a fine balance in his storytelling. He doesn't bore us with endless details of belays and rappels but he still conveys a sense of the technical difficulties involved. Most of all, though, he has a natural feel for what people want to read. When it comes to the conquest of the North Face of the Eiger he admits that the ascent doesn't strictly fall within his remit, but he tells it anyway as the story is so gripping. --John Crace
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