Book review - Touching the Void

Touching the Void

By Joe Simpson

Published by Vintage

ISBN 0-09-977101-2

This tells a true story of Joe Simpson (author) and his friend Simon Yates who were mountaineering in Peruvian Andes in the mid 1980s.  They successfully reach the peak but on their descent, Joe has a nasty accident and breaks his right leg at the knee and ankle, leaving him dangling over a ridge.  Simon was unable to see and hear Joe and, as the ice/snow under him started slipping, was then in the position of being pulled off the ice wall thus risking both their lives or to cut the rope.
Luck seemed to be with both of them, however, as Joe Simpson not only survived the fall, but also managed to crawl, hobble and drag himself back to their base camp, (Simon assumed he had died in the fall) surviving three days without food and water, and arriving on the day that Simon planned to leave base camp to return home.
This is one hell of a survival story and is well worth reading.

Available through the Book Depository here Touching the Void book

Book Review - Anne Frank Remembered

Anne Frank Remembered: The story of the woman who helped to hide the Frank family

By Miep Gies with Alison Leslie Gold

Published by Simon & Schuster, a Touchstone book

ISBN number 067 1662341/9780671 662349

This is a wonderful book written by Miep Gies, the lady that worked for Otto Frank's jam factory in Amsterdam and helped hide the Franks for many years in what is now called The Annexe, where Anne wrote her diaries.  It starts with Miep Gies' own childhood - she herself was a refugee from Austria during World War One, and sent to Holland to escape the bombings.  Her story then carries on through her employment with Otto Frank, and the beginnings of the World War Two and the attempted destruction of European Jewry.  It tells of arranging the hiding of the Frank family (as well as the others that hid in the Annexe) and then the final discovery and removal of the family, and continues to the end of the War and Otto Franks arrival back in Amsterdam, and the recovery of Anne's diaries.

This is a remarkable story and provides an extra insight into the story of the Frank family and is well worth reading.