WINNER OF THE TELEGRAPH BEST SPORTS WRITING AWARD 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021

'One of the best books ever written about the early attempts to conquer Everest. A fine, fine slice of history by a truly special writer who proves time and time again that he is among the best of his generation' Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets

'A small classic of the biographer's art' Sunday Times

In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit - all utterly alone. Wilson didn't know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. But he had pluck, daring and a vision - he wanted to be the first man to stand on top of the world.

Maurice Wilson is a man written out of the history books - dismissed as an eccentric and a charlatan by many, but held in the highest regard by world class mountaineers such as Reinhold Messner. The Moth and the Mountain restores him to his rightful place in the annals of Everest and in doing so attempts to answer that perennial question - why do we climb mountains?

'A towering, tragic tale rescued from oblivion by Ed Caesar's magnificent writing' Dan Snow

'This bonkers ripping yarn of derring-don't is a hell of a ride' The Times

'It's hard to imagine a finer tribute to one of Everest's forgotten heroes' Elizabeth Day

"'The adventurer Maurice Wilson was a forgotten figure until Ed Caesar's brilliantly written book restored him to his rightful place in the annals of exploration... Caesar's book received enormous praise on publication last year and rightly so. This splendid tale is every bit as exciting as any adventure novel and deeply moving'" - Observer

"'This bonkers ripping yarn of derring-don't is a hell of a ride ... scrupulously researched ... Maurice Wilson was a one-off, quite outside the ordinary run of people, and The Moth and the Mountain is a "sorry, beautiful, melancholy, crazy" tribute to a man who, like a leaf in autumn, burnt brightest just before he fell'" - The Times

"'An urgent and humane story that invites not mockery of a madman, but pity and admiration. A small classic of the biographer's art'" - The Sunday Times

"'Caesar is a journalist with a novelist's eye for character ... Wilson's story is bonkers, but also beautiful. The profile Caesar builds is compelling, colourful and warm - of a complex, contradictory man with admirable self-belief and a healthy disregard for class boundaries and national borders' (Book of the Week)" - Guardian

"'A riveting tale of trauma, spiritual awakening and postwar derring-do ... a gem of a book ... meticulously researched' (Book of the Week)" - Observer

"'An outstanding book . . . The Moth and the Mountain returns readers to a romantic era when Everest was terra nova rather than an experience to be bought . . . the author, a contributing writer for the New Yorker, is a talented storyteller with a flair for detail. . . Wilson's story is an entry less in the annals of mountaineering than in the Book of Life. That such an extraordinary person even existed is cause for celebration'" - Wall Street Journal

"'An engrossing biography ... credit to Caesar for rescuing such a splendid tale of an engaging maverick from the footnotes of Everest history." - Spectator

"'Praise is due to Ed Caesar for managing to tell this tale so well, because the sheer madness of Wilson's life would surely have thrown off all but the most sure-footed biographer. Caesar sets about it with fantastic energy and makes use of a marvellous collage of letters, diary entries, poetry, telegrams, interviews and archival iced gems. He is to be applauded for giving romantic, adamantine, lion-hearted Maurice Wilson his overdue day in the sun'" - Literary Review

"'Gripping at every turn ... it's impossible not to root for Wilson'" - Outside

"'Engagingly depicts Wilson and his times in ebullient and well-written prose ... a widely appealing and affecting character study, microhistory, story of love and loss, and inquiry into some surprising effects of trauma and personal tragedy'" - Booklist

"'Riveting... Caesar's biographical tale of Wilson rightly restores a footnoted figure of alpine history to the storied peaks of Mount Everest, where his body lays still today'" - InsideHook