Anthony Lindsay Jones

In 1968, by the time Tony Jones was 26, he had been nurtured in leafy Surrey, had drifted through public school and had done his bit as a British Army subaltern in Northern Ireland, Libya and elsewhere. He had travelled three times overland to India, had trudged alone to Everest and had worked there with Ed Hillary. He had also checked out the realities of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and had witnessed first-hand the beginnings of the fiasco in Vietnam. Still not satiated, he managed the unheard-of ruse of travelling through Chairman Mao’s China and returned to England via Mongolia, Siberia and Moscow and he now calls these exploits his Formative Years. The middle part of Tony’s trilogy tells of the 30-year era that has him defining and developing the youthful rite of passage of groups free-wheeling overland across Asia, Africa and South America. The modus operandi and the plethora of events - mostly joyous though sometimes horrendous - are written up by the concept’s main protagonist. Along with its stimulating photographs it is a penetrating insight into the world of trans-continental expeditioning. And in the telling, that irreplaceable age of true global access is brought vividly back to life. The 25 years that conclude this unique three-part account have been lived mainly in Nepal and are absolutely no less colourful and enthralling. Here the richness and diversity and the distinct cultural contrasts, as well as the intensity of purpose in regard to a developing country’s prosperity, have provided a wealth of enterprise and experience. At this Himalayan ‘rock-face’ of pure adventure the rewards have been both inclusive and personal and these are brought together to complete this one-of-kind life story.