The book’s sub-title, “Exploring the roof of the world” tells you more about the focus of this excellent book than does the one word title. The author considers activities of numerous incomers exploring this vast and varied area, from deep in pre-history to the post-WW2 era - invaders and would-be colonisers, ascetics, explorers, plant-hunters, and many more who have been attracted to the Himalaya. Using this format, Keay gives the reader an insight into the history, geomorphology, political and economic developments, and the effects of climate change in the region.
I had previously enjoyed several of this author’s books about this mountain area, and “Himalaya” is a very welcome addition to my collection.

The Himãlaya region is an area that has always fascinated me. I was very pleased to get the opportunity to read this book about the area from an author with an obvious knowledge about this area and regions close by. The book is very wide ranging covering diverse aspects of this region including geology, history including religion and legends, social issues and trade. Mountaineering is also included. The region includes all of Tibet as well as adjacent areas, most of the world's mountains highest peaks and over 50,000 glaciers. The mountain range is the youngest on the planet and still growing. The area is nearly as big as Europe with diverse languages and religions.

One thing struck me immediately as very strange was that this vast region has no protection compared to other places on earth. Indeed it is an area that has often been abused rather than preserved. From invading armies of a number of nations through to modern environmental indifference and exploitation. The creation of the region by continental drift (and that subject it looked at in some detail) means the geology of the region is important. This leads to the geography of the area. I don't think I was aware that the top of Everest is marine limestone! Erosion and important rivers (and the valleys) are vital to understanding the area. This also leads to consideration of the wildlife and environment. This information often comes from hunters. Evidence of very varied past flora and fauna comes from fossil remains. The story of some of these finds really interested me.

Over the course of the book the ebb, flow and changes of power, religion and access crop up in a number of chapters. Invasion or occupation by others - China and the UK would be examples - led to changes in other aspects. Religion in the area grows, Buddhism particularly though Bonpo is looked at too, and then wanes or is suppressed. Pilgrimage and "sacred sites" is covered with some focus on Kailas & Manasarowar. The sheer scale of this book is akin to that of the region. Some places or topics crop up in the narrative in a number of chapters. Examples would be mountains, Lhasa and pilgrimage.

The abundance of things I knew very little or nothing about surprised me somewhat. Namcha Barwa would be a good example of a place this. I've heard the term "inaccessible" but this place and some others take that term beyond most of what I've come across. Of interest to me was the topic of mountains & mountaineering. The information on the exploration of the K2 area and the Karakoram more widely was extremely interesting. The scope of trade and commerce was more surprising to me that some other topics. The mineral exploitation of the area, equally the idea that animal products were important to trade were fairly obvious. However I confess I had no idea at all that caterpillar fungi (!) might crop up and certainly not as a valuable product.

The narrative here introduces us to a number of people who have journeyed in the region over centuries. Some of these I found so interesting. The story of Alexandra David-Néel for example was fascinating. She was the first European female to spend time in and explore the region - I knew nothing at all about her. I found parts of this book just so interesting and could have happily read more about them. By way of example the stories of specific explorers Vigne and the Karakoram was extremely interesting.

There are some pictures in this book however I guess I would have liked more. Equally there are some maps however these were simply inadequate for me. I have some broad understanding of the geography of the region but places were quite often mentioned that I had no clear idea about; again Namcha Barwa was an example of this. The maps there were seemed very general rather than specific to chapters. That said some chapters had extremely broad coverage too which might have made a better level of mapping harder.

I did find the epilogue a little strange. It was quite long and for the most part it seemed to contain material that could have been incorporated in other chapters quite happily. Having said that I confess that I'm actually not quite sure how this book is organised. The chapter headings are fine however I found some topics/characters spread over more than one chapter. In fairness to the author it is hard to write a compact review of this book so the difficulties in the planning and creation of this tome I realise are far larger. The spread of this book almost seems to reflect the spread of the area it refers too not unreasonably. This is probably not a book for the "person in the street". To get the most out of this a real interest in the area would be a minimum. However I would suggest that some reasonable level of knowledge would make the read far more rewarding. I found myself looking up aspects of this book that I simply knew very little or nothing about.

Sadly this is just not for me and I didn’t finish it. I enjoyed the prologue which describes the Younghusband expedition of 1903/04, an incursion that did not cover the British and their allies in glory. It did, however, open up more of Tibet to the western world. As Edmund Candler, a journalist whose account Keay relates to us, wrote “Tomorrow, when we enter Lhasa, we will have unveiled the last mystery of the East. There are no more forbidden cities which men have not mapped and photographed.”

Chapter 1 is about the geology of the Himalayas and it’s interesting to learn how the mountains were created. The wealth of fossil remains to be found there indicates that the mountains are young and were underwater at one time. Keay then turns to the history of geological theories and, for what seems like an interminably long time, the history of the identification of continental drift. This goes on much too long and in too much detail for me, if not for most lay readers.

Chapter 2 focuses on palaeontology, more fossil finding, and the antiquity of man. While the findings are interesting, this is just as much a history of the science as it is about the Himalayas and I found it very dry. Sadly, for me, the rest of the book continues in the same vein -potentially interesting topics bogged down in complex detail. It was just too dry for me and I gave up well before the end. There is no doubt that Keay knows his subject and it may be that I would find other works of his more readable but this one is just not for me.