Next week, longtime climber and ex-SAS officer Jim Truscott will launch his latest book, an autobiography that Wild contributor and climate scientist Professor Will Steffen as: ‘one of the most unusual climbing books you’ll ever read.’
Steffen reviewed the manuscript in the lead up to the title’s release, and as an accomplished mountaineer and adventurer himself, his thoughts on the book provide a qualified insight into what we might expect.
Entitled, Snakes in the Jungle: Special Operations in War & Business (Zeus Publications), the autobiography strides through Truscott’s outdoor adventures, military career and subsequent business career in a way that blurs the distinctions between them.
As Steffen put it: ‘…it isn’t the climbing boots, the SAS camouflage gear, or the polished black shoes and suit of the consultant that matter the most, it is the bloke standing in them that makes the difference.’
‘Jim Truscott is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly politically correct, bureaucratically tangled, risk-averse world.’
Sharing first-hand accounts of early Australian mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, as well as other climbing adventures in Australia and New Zealand, the book will no doubt appeal first and foremost to those with an interest in climbing. However, the adventure aspect is also interleaved with Truscott’s memoirs on his career, along with a healthy dash of philosophical musings.
The resulting story is one from which each person may draw something entirely different, while also being of historic significance.
Truscott will be joined by other notable climbers and ex-servicemen to launch Snakes in the Jungle (his sixth book) at the Whipper Snapper Distillery in Perth on Thursday, April 23. You can also read fellow climber Neil Gledhill’s review of the book here.