W. E. Bowman (1912-1985) was a civil engineer who spent his free time hill-walking, painting and writing (unpublished) books on the Theory of Relativity. He was married with two children.
Wonderful. Rum Doodle does for mountaineering what Three Men in a Boat did for Thames-going or Catch-22 did for the Second World War. It is simply an account of the leader of an expedition up Rum Doodle, a 40,000 and a half foot peak in the Himalayas, in the same way that Scoop is simply a tale about newsgathering in Africa. The tone is nearer to Pooter than anyone else I can think of, but the flavour is all W.E. Bowman's own. * Sunday Times * I just love this book. Everything about it is nearly perfect... hugely enjoyable and brilliantly sustained. * Bill Bryson * Exceedingly funny... as if the hero of Diary of a Nobody had, in a mood of abandon, turned to mountaineering. * Dublin Magazine * it is an epic. It is Homeric. It is inspiring. It is very, very funny... Read it and be moved. * Books of the Month * Amazing...Laugh-out-loud literature -- Tim Key * Guardian *