The Envelope: Walking Up to Everest Base Camp

Many disenchanted Westerners have gone to the Himalayas in search of renewal, but no one has written about the experience as perceptively and personally as Andrew Stevenson in Annapurna Circuit. A traveller all his life, Stevenson responds to people and places with an openness unique to the cultural nomad - his portraits of the men, women and children of the Annapurnas, and the fellow-backpackers form all over the world who intermittently shared his journey, are a delight; his descriptions of the landscape, and the physical hardships of the trek are enthralling. But like every travel book of real quality, this is also the result of a spiritual journey. A richly rewarding read on every level, The Envelope is a modern travel classic in the tradition of Peter Matthiesson's Snow Leopard and Andrew Harvey's Journey to Ladakh.