A Mountain to Climb is an inspirational and motivational story of life memoir set in the 1960s and 1970s in England, and characteristics a hazardous adventure on Timor even though on a mission to carry out geological study for Earle’s PhD thesis.
Michael Earle – Architect of Life Starts a Single Step to “A Mountain To Climb” – A Mountain to Climb on Timor is a witty and entertaining account of a wayward teenager coming of age in Britain for the duration of the 1960s and 1970s and trying to transform his behaviour in a bid to prove his really worth
Michael Earle’s journey begins when the possibility discovery of geology inspires goal and ambition at school, but he denies the need to curtail social actions and romantic endeavours in favour of tough operate, and fails to win a spot at university. The outcome is a year of manual labour and the reduced point of his life. Determined, he does not abandon hope and succeeds at the third attempt.
The climax of the story is a life-changing adventure in Indonesia amongst the indigenous Atoni on Timor Island, a hazardous encounter full of emotional torment and physical challenges that push Earle to the limit. And he ought to race against time to make a geological map ahead of the monsoon rains turn dry rivers into impassable torrents.
On the return voyage, Earle faces a menacing crisis when he falls overboard into the shark-infested Timor Sea in the course of a violent storm. As night approaches, he is disorientated, tiring rapidly and questioning in which path to swim.
…’the whirlwind of events and characters, the fast plot movement, and the physical travel from location to spot reminded me of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road…’ Stephanie Hale
In A Mountain to Climb on Timor, Earle’s quest is a journey for the ego, driven by a need to have to mend a psyche wounded by a sense of failure inside of the social context of the author’s middle class upbringing, namely, his family members, close friends and school.
Geology is the catalyst or calling that gives him hope, motivation and a road to follow to the objective of acquiring a university degree, the iconic prize that symoblises achievement and will enable him to recover his self esteem. And there is a more quest, a single of endurance and geological discovery in the mountains of Timor.
When Michael Earle returned from his adventure on Timor in 1977 he knew there was a story to inform. But a concoction of desire and information demands a catalyst to ignite a reaction in a busy life, and it arrived twenty five years later in the aftermath of a loved ones bereavement.
Troubled that his Timor story would remain untold, Earle set about the process of producing a legacy for his family members, but in rummaging amongst diaries, photographs, letters and boxes complete of memorabilia going back forty years, he set totally free a genie greater and far more powerful than anticipated.
What occurred on Timor was only aspect of a longer journey that the author started out in adolescence. He did not fulfil the expectations demanded by his social background, and the factors for this type the very first portion of the book as essential context for the transformation of his character and the achievements at university justifying the metaphor about a mountain to climb.
It took 4 months to write the initial draft of the manuscript, and then four years to total the published version. Born as The Lonely Journey in Search of Far Horizons, the baby became a toddler named A Wiltshire Boy: Journey out of the Wilderness ahead of growing up into A Mountain to Climb on Timor.
Michael Earle was born in Seend village in Wiltshire and for the duration of the 1960s misspent his teenage years in Chippenham, where he chanced upon his vocation of geology at the nearby grammar school.
Michael read geology at Oxford Brookes University and went on to Chelsea College, University of London, to do research about Timor.
His PhD thesis was accepted by the University in 1981, and his research was published in Nature (1979) Tectonophysics (1980) Nature (1983) and the Journal of Metamorphic Geology (1983) – see beneath Bibliography.
Written by michaelearle
