This gripping book has all the power and emotion of Touching the Void. Jamie Andrew’s survival against incredible odds and his determination to recover is truly inspirational.
Jamie Andrew’s survival and rescue after five nights trapped by a ferocious storm in 1999 has passed into Alpine legend. It was a miracle that he survived; but Jamie had to come to terms not only with the death of his close friend, Jamie Fisher, who died beside him – but also with the loss of all his limbs to frostbite.
Since the accident, Jamie has struggled painfully and successfully to overcome his disabilities; not only has he learnt to walk (and run) on his prosthetic legs, but also to ski, snowboard, paraglide – and even take up his beloved mountaineering again.
‘Like Joe Simpson, Andrew has discovered a latent talent for writing that only a mountaineering epic seems to have allowed him to uncover. And like Touching the Void, Life and Limb is brilliantly written and utterly un-put-down-able. If ever a tale evokes the phrase “life affirming” then this is it.’ - On the Edge magazine
'His courage, determination and sense of humour shine through the words of this remarkable book … Life and Limb is a genuinely life-enhancing read.' - Scottish Mountaineer
Author
About Jamie Andrew
Jamie Andrew, born in 1969, was brought up near Glasgow; in his teens he became an active mountaineer and rock climber, making many successful climbs on severe routes in the Alps, Dolomites, and in Yosemite Valley, California. After Edinburgh University (where he was President of the Mountaineering Club) he took up a career as an industrial rope access technician, carrying out maintenance and construction projects on high buildings, oil rigs and bridges by means of abseil.
Since Jamie’s accident in 1999, he has participated in many sporting activities, including running in the London Marathon, skiing, snowboarding, paragliding and caving – as well as returning to rock climbing and mountaineering.
In 2002, Jamie Andrew was the overall winner of the Lloyds TSB/Sunday Mail Great Scot Award. In 2004 Life and Limb was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize and won the Banff Mountain Book Festival Prize for Mountain Literature. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife Anna and daughter Iris, who was born in February 2004. A documentary reconstruction of Jamie Andrew's story was shown on Survivors on ITV.
