The True Story of a Brief and Courageous Life

Ollie

The exceptionally moving, brilliantly written story of the brief, courageous life of Ollie, the autistic son of one of Britain's most successful mountaineers, and of his effect on all who knew him.

A gripping, humbling account... This is a story of great courage, love, and extraordinary selflessness but most of all it is a celebration of the existence of a bright, lively, brave little boy

An uplifting tribute to a remarkable child

Ollie is not a bleak book. There are episodes of exuberant joy... More compelling than a climbing narrative

Stephen Venables is best known as the mountaineer who in 1988 became the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen - one of many pioneering expeditions around the world. He began climbing while at Oxford in the early seventies, and has written eight books about his mountain travels, winning the Boardman Tasker Prize, the King Albert Medal and the Grand Award at Banff International Mountain Literature Festival. He has also appeared in several television documentaries and the IMAX movie, Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. He lives in Bath with his wife Rosie and Ollie's brother Edmond.

Like the swallows, our son Ollie came in the spring and left in the autumn. Dancing, singing, swooping - there was something birdlike about his energy, joy and laughter - but also the fleeting, enigmatic quality of his life. 
 
When he was two he lost all his speech, as autism turned his life - and ours - into a baffling challenge. Then at four he had to face a new challenge when he almost died from leukaemia. But chemotherapy worked its magic and he made a full recovery. He was a tough survivor and nothing seemed to dim his spirit: he could light up a room and energize everyone around him. So it was a huge shock, after several cancer-free years, when a fatal brain tumour was discovered. This time his body had had enough and he died very suddenly. He was twelve. 
 
Ollie had extraordinary courage and endurance. Time after time he bounced back, determined to enjoy life. He was obstinate, mischievous, playful, flirtatious, quixotic, funny. He generated - and continues to generate - huge amounts of laughter. And he was very beautiful. We always felt that if autism had not unravelled the wiring of his neural pathways, he would have achieved extraordinary things. 
 
This is the story of the journey we made with Ollie. Unlike a mountaineer, pursuing extreme experiences out of choice, he had difficulty thrust upon him: he was forced to be brave. For me, too, the journey was far more compelling than any expedition.

Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya

A Slender Thread

Venables is one of the best climbers in the world, and one of the best writers about climbing . . . Read it, but be careful. You may never be content just to climb the stairs again

The plummet experienced by Venables on the descent from his successful first ascent of Panch Chuli V in the Himalayas was of the kind most feared by climbers, the failure of an abseil point, an incident which usually guarantees death . . . Venables writes with understated elegance

Sensitive to the absurdity and honest about the selfishness, he is, more than most mountaineers, eloquent in describing the satisfactions climbing can bring . . . It is powerful, dramatic writing . . . This is one of the best mountaineering books to have been published for a long while

One of the most successful climbers of his generation . . . outstanding . . . his best book

Stephen Venables is best known as the mountaineer who in 1988 became the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen - one of many pioneering expeditions around the world. He began climbing while at Oxford in the early 1970s, and has written eight books about his mountain travels, winning the Boardman Tasker Prize, the King Albert Medal and the Grand Award at Banff International Mountain Literature Festival. He has also appeared in several television documentaries and worked on two IMAX movies - appearing in Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure and writing Alps - Giants of Nature. His most recent book, Ollie, was a Sunday Times bestseller. He is President of the Alpine Club in the year of its 150th anniversary. He lives in Bath with his wife and son.

Together with Chris Bonington and other distinguished British climbers, Stephen Venables was high on the unclimbed and sacred mountain of Panch Chuli when, at 1am on a dark Himalayan night, his abseil failed and he fell catastrophically, somersaulting from rock to rock and landing, seriously-wounded, at the end of a rope suspended above a 50-degree icefield. This is the story of his arduous and almost miraculous survival, and of the brilliant, committed teamwork which brought him to safety.

Stephen Venables

Having spent time with Stephen on the Eiger, I know what good company he is. He has huge talent and a remarkable story to tell. His Everest climb was one of the great adventures of our time, but what is really fascinating is the life journey that took him to the top

There can be no dispute about the magnitude of his achievement...Venables is superb on the terror and exhilaration of climbing...There is a particularly heart-stopping account of a journey up the north face of the Matterhorn. Insightful into his own character, Venables is honest enough to face up to the selfishness that mountaineering requires and the strain it puts on relationships

The story of his descent after a night spent the top is... both harrowing and deeply moving

If you've never climbed, Higher Than the Eagle Soars can still be read for its old-fashioned, self-effacing humour, as the story of a cultured man determined to place himself inside a tradition he loves. Or you can read it for the thrills and spills

This is a memoir run through with humanity, humour and a deep abiding love of high mountains and the adventures they provide

A Path to Everest

High and wild places have dominated Stephen Venables' life and now he has written a full autobiography which explores how and - more importantly - why he became a mountaineer, and reveals a series of never-recorded adventures on four continents. At its climax he revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest's history and by Lord Hunt as 'one of the most remarkable ordeals from which men or women have returned alive'. As Venables writes: 'Although we didn't go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way - the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation.'

Stephen Venables

Praise for Higher Than The Eagle Soars

Having spent time with Stephen on the Eiger, I know what good company he is. He has huge talent and a remarkable story to tell. His Everest climb was one of the great adventures of our time, but what is really fasci ...

There can be no dispute about the magnitude of his achievement...Venables is superb on the terror and exhilaration of climbing...There is a particularly heart-stopping account of a journey up the north face of the M ...

The story of his descent after a night spent the top is... both harrowing and deeply moving

Having spent time with Stephen on the Eiger, I know what good company he is. He has huge talent and a remarkable story to tell. His Everest climb was one of the great adventures of our time, but what is really fasci ...

There can be no dispute about the magnitude of his achievement...Venables is superb on the terror and exhilaration of climbing...There is a particularly heart-stopping account of a journey up the north face of the M ...

The story of his descent after a night spent the top is... both harrowing and deeply moving

Having spent time with Stephen on the Eiger, I know what good company he is. He has huge talent and a remarkable story to tell. His Everest climb was one of the great adventures of our time, but what is really fasci ...

There can be no dispute about the magnitude of his achievement...Venables is superb on the terror and exhilaration of climbing...There is a particularly heart-stopping account of a journey up the north face of the M ...

The story of his descent after a night spent the top is... both harrowing and deeply moving

Books by Stephen Venables

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