Herzog's account of the French conquest of Annapurna, in the Himalayas, was an immediate success when it first appeared over 40 years ago, and a re-reading confirms it as a classic of its kind. At that time, Everest had not yet been climbed (though Hilary's ascent of it came very soon afterwards) and the scaling of Annapurna, a particularly ugly and daunting challenge for any climber, made headlines all around the world and deservedly too. Even getting to the base of the mountain was an arduous task, while the actual climbing was carried on in stages, with the expedition setting up a series of camps along the way until Herzog and another member, Louis Lachenal, made the final, heroic dash to the summit. They barely beat the monsoon, and the descent through snow and winds was a nightmare - especially since Herzog, the expedition's leader, was now badly frostbitten and had to be carried most of the time by Sherpas. In fact, he lost many or most of his toes and later spent a long time in hospital, while Lachenal, also deprived of his toes, underwent a series of operations before dying in a skiing accident. Herzog, a man of obvious dynamism and gifts of leadership, went on to become mayor of Chamonix and to hold parliamentary office as a representative of sport. His vivid, high powered but never overdramatised account of the ascent still reads splendidly and has been supplied with a new introduction by Joe Simpson.