The WWI hero who climbed Everest alone: How a Chorlton writer wrote one of the best books of the year
Maurice Wilson aimed to fly to Everest in a Gipsy Moth in 1934 and then climb the rest of the way; becoming the first person to reach its summit alone.
He’d served as a pilot in the navy during the seventies, and upon retirement, he whisked his young family up to Aberdeen so he could continue flying helicopters commercially.
It was during a routine training session that the engine failed and caught fire.
Caesar Snr guided the helicopter to the ground against the odds. But upon impact, the fuel tanks exploded, killing him and the trainee passenger.
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The tragedy should have been enough to scare a young Ed away from flying for life.
Yet, here he was, thirty years later, sat at the stick of a hundred-year-old Gipsy Moth aeroplane – three-thousand feet in the air above Dorset.
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It was a wonderful and terrifying experience.
The vehicle appeared to be made of canvas, wood, a few bits of metal and little else – powered by the kind of engine you’d expect to find inside a lawnmower.
The reverberations were so intense it felt like pieces of the plane could just flake away at any given moment, disintegrating in the middle of the sky.
After cosying up to clouds for several minutes, Ed touched back down unscathed (which he owed to his “terrific” instructor). But the deafening rattle of the flight stayed with him; the vibrations pulsing through his body for the rest of the day.
On paper, it seems puzzling. Why would any person attempt to fly a century-old aircraft with no experience? Let alone someone who was all-too-familiar with what can go wrong?
But by this point, Ed was in too deep.
The author had fallen head over heels for one of history’s forgotten figures – a WWI veteran named Maurice Wilson who wanted to fly from England to India in a Gipsy Moth and climb Everest; hoping to become the first person to reach its summit alone.
Short of actually going up the mountain himself, Ed was devoted to doing all the detective work necessary to tell Wilson’s story. No matter how dangerous – or personally moving – that might be.
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Wilson had a fascinating tale. And Ed wanted to get it right. Even if that included taking flight himself.
Long before he’d bravely clambered into the cabin of the Moth, Ed had deduced that the wider world should know the real Maurice Wilson.
The man was a Rubik’s Cube – courageous, mad, infuriating and admirable all at once.
In his younger days, Wilson had fought with astonishing bravery on the frontline in Flanders during the war; standing strong as his friends fell to their deaths around him.
He made it out alive with the Military Cross for his heroic efforts (as Ed notes, the average lifespan of a second lieutenant in WWI was just six weeks), but he was unfairly denied a pension.
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Despite his valour, Wilson also had a callous side.
He married multiple times after the war and treated each wife worse than the last, “leaving behind a trail of broken hearts” as he travelled the world searching for his purpose.
He even managed to fall in love with his close friend’s spouse along the way.
But it wasn’t until Wilson picked up the newspaper in a Freiburg cafe one afternoon that he settled on an ambitious and stupefying idea.
He would crash land a Gipsy Moth on the slopes of Everest and climb to the top himself – disguising himself as a Tibetan priest to get past authority figures who would have recognised his Western features and halted his ascent.
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It was frankly mad. Wilson had no experience, no knowhow, no resources. Yet, he was utterly convinced he could do it.
Standing at the base of the mountain looking up, Wilson could already see the newspapers that awaited him on his return.
“In five weeks, the world will be on fire,” he wrote in his diary, anticipating the headlines on the horizon.
Before Everest, Wilson had “hardly climbed anything more challenging than a flight of stairs”. Nor had he scaled any further than the footnotes of history.
But Ed’s new book – The Moth and The Mountain – conclusively changes that.
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The Chorlton writer gives Wilson’s chronicle a fresh lease of life (having been at real risk of being buried forever in the annals of history).
It’s equal parts breathtaking and baffling – having already been picked as the NY Times’, Amazon’s, and The Observer’s best-reviewed books of the month.
The official release date for The Moth and The Mountain is November 12. But it’s been in the making for almost a decade.
“I’ve lived with Wilson for a long time,” Ed chuckles.
“At times he’s infuriating. He’d talk too much. He was definitely a bad husband.
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“But I am filled with admiration for his courage and I sympathise with his feelings to redeem himself. It’s a human response to trauma and things going wrong.
“He didn’t get what he deserved after WWI. He was a guy from Bradford, and in the people who refused to give him his army pension, he saw the same class of people who were trying to stop him from climbing Everest.
“He wanted to get one over on them.”
Image: Pikrepo
Wilson is by no means the first person to use rejection as a motivational tool. The ‘I’ll show them’ mindset has spurned on many a man to get what he was told he could never have.
But none of these figures ever tried to prove their doubters wrong by flying 4,000 miles and then climbing 8,848 metres into the sky.
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The whole thing looked suicidal. Was Wilson crazy? Or brave beyond belief?
Ed thinks he might have been both.
“In all famous explorers, there’s a balance between madness and a refusal to be beaten,” the author explains.
“I think it perhaps tipped towards madness in Wilson’s case. He was just so poorly prepared for what he was about to do.
“Any rational person would look and say he wouldn’t be able to do it. But [Wilson] sees it as something he can do. His mind says ‘just keep on going’.
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“He needs Everest for reasons I don’t think he even understands.”
The Moth and The Mountain sees Ed – a journalist by trade – venture into non-fiction writing for the second time in his career.
His first book, Two Hours, was a deep dive into the endurance-pushing, limit-smashing, sweat-soused world of marathon runners and their obsession with defeating records and setting new ones.
Wilson was also one of these people, in his own way.
“I was interested in Wilson for a lot of reasons – but it’s definitely connected to that idea of people trying to achieve the impossible,” Ed says.
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Nonetheless, researching The Moth And The Mountain was a very different experience.
Very few people who knew Wilson were still alive, and to get to the truth, Ed had to pore through archives, venture overseas, reach out to long-lost relatives, visit memorials, recover old diaries, and source ancient letters.
And, of course, he arranged to fly in a Gipsy Moth – just like his protagonist.
Ed Caesar
Completing The Moth and The Mountain was an expedition in itself. But if it gives Wilson some deserved spotlight, Ed believes it will have been worth it.
“I hope this has corrected the record but also told a thrilling and fascinating story most people won’t have heard of… and it comes across like the person who wrote it has really done their homework.”
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Perhaps the greatest achievement of The Moth and The Mountain is how it saves Maurice Wilson from being doomed to a ‘crank’ reputation he was seemingly destined for.
History had written him off as a disaster.
But after getting to know his subject, Ed feels like he partly understands why Wilson did what he felt he had to do.
“Sometimes, you need a massive gesture and a big adventure to sweep away damage in your life,” Ed tells us.
Perhaps this thought was going through the author’s mind when he clambered into the cockpit of the Gipsy Moth.
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In that seat, Ed Caesar was as close to Wilson – and his father – as he’d ever been.
The Moth and The Mountain puts it all on the page. And it’s riveting.
You can purchase a copy of The Moth And The Mountain online here.
You can also find out more about Ed Caesar’s work on his website.
@edcaesar
Feature
Inside Sifters Records, the time capsule record shop that inspired Oasis
Harry Quick
The date the world never thought was coming is set. Manchester’s most famous brothers have against all the odds put their differences aside for music’s greater good. Oasis are BACK.
I suppose it is only good news at the moment if you were one of the lucky few who managed to secure a ticket to one of the 17 gigs (actually, now 19 with two new dates added) in the Oasis 25′ Tour. If you didn’t – hard luck – but there is arguably one shop owner who deserves one more than most.
Fans of our most iconic band from all around the world should show their gratitude to a little record store in Burnage for helping to make that happen. Some might say, Sifters Records is the home of the Gallaghers’ love for music. The two brothers were brought up just a stone’s throw away from here on Cranwell Drive and were regular visitors of Sifters throughout their teenage years.
Noel has previously mentioned how he used to stroll around to Sifters on Fog Lane and pick up records by the likes of The Smiths, Joy Division and The Happy Mondays, which would help inspire some of the world-renowned anthems Oasis would later go on to create. The relationship between the Gallaghers and Sifters Records is emblematic of their deep roots in Manchester’s music scene.
If you feel like you’ve heard the name before, you probably have as Liam mentions the store in the song ‘Shakermaker’. In the final verse of the song – before the closing Shake Along with Me / Them interlude – he gets his special mention.
The lyrics “Mr Sifter sold me songs when I was just sixteen, now he stops at traffic lights but only when they’re green” pay homage to its main road location and the lads’ musical upbringing before the international stardom.
Sifters Records inspired Oasis’ love of music – and gets a namecheck in Shakermaker. Credit: The Manc GroupSifters Records inspired Oasis’ love of music – and gets a namecheck in Shakermaker. Credit: The Manc Group
If the lyrics alone don’t put an image in your head, the official music video for the song pictures Liam stereotypically swaggering towards the shop front in a parka and shades on the hunt for some new music. After flicking through a few 12″ vinyls he shows Red Rose Speedway to the camera by Paul McCartney’s – Wings. I wonder if he bought it that day or could it still be in there?
In a brand new 30-minute interview filmed ahead of the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe, Noel revealed how he wrote the infamous lyric in an off-the-cuff moment directly outside the shop.
“I have to say this shop has not changed a bit. I bought a lot of my records in here, it’s where I discovered my love of ‘best of’ albums.
“Every time I hear Shakermaker I remember pulling up in that car and looking over and seeing the song.”
It’s no wonder this was Noel’s favourite place to scope out new tunes growing up. It’s still one of Manchester’s most impressive collections with hundreds, if not thousands of vintage LPs.
Most of these are from the personal collection of ‘Mr Sifter’ himself Pete Howard who has run this musical mecca since 1977. The building itself has an unchanged charm – a time capsule of fading band posters, windows of unrelated local advertisements and well-trodden carpet from the thousands of feet on a pilgrimage from far and wide.
Fans from across the globe have rocked up for a word with Pete and the admiration for his store only keeps growing, which he sometimes struggles to believe how fortunate he got. If you pop in looking for any Oasis discography, good luck, it doesn’t stick around long.
When ‘Definitely Maybe’ dropped in ’94 he said he recognised the members of the band straight just from the album cover.
Now, with a deluxe edition re-release 30 years later, and a reunion tour around the corner, it’s undeniable that the whole world does – let’s just hope they stay mates this time!
Blossoms’ wonderful Wythenshawe Park show proved they’re ready to headline the big leagues
Danny Jones
Ok, full disclosure: as a fellow Stopfordian, this review was always going to be heavily biased, but I still wholeheartedly believe that Blossoms are some the best performers on the British music scene right now and, as far I’m concerned, their Wythenshawe Park gig was yet more proof of that.
The landmark show was their biggest to date with roughly 30,000 people packed into a Greater Manchester field for what was just the second year of the Wythenshawe Park gigs which looks destined to be a must-visit annual Manchester music event.
For starters, not only is being the second name chosen to headline this still relatively new event after Noel bloody Gallagher quite the achievement, but playing to what felt like an entire town full of people on your home turf is the kind of stuff usually reserved for, you know, GOATs…
Now, we’re not going to be so bold as to claim they’re at that point in their careers already, however, when you’re collecting the kind of support acts they are, playing to crowds this big and making music lovers of all ages sing about a giant fibreglass gorilla called Gary, you’re clearly doing something right.
🚨 Be advised: GMP are on the lookout for an eight-foot fibreglass Gorilla – first name Gary, second name trouble. 🦍
He was last spotted on stage as @BlossomsBand were playing absolute bangers at Wythenshawe Park.
Let’s kick off with the supports, shall we? That’s one of the best things about this Live From Wythenshawe Park series: these dates are closer to mini-Manc festivals than they are standalone gigs, and with such an impressive roster of so-called ‘warm-up’ acts, we were truly spoiled rotten.
From more fledgling artists like The Guestlist and Ttrruuces, fast-rising up-and-comers like Seb Lowe and The K’s, to UK veterans like Shed Seven and the always sensational indie stars Inhaler, it was a stacked lineup spanning several generations.
Before Inhaler got the crowd bouncing and ready from Blossoms, we even got special appearances from two incredible female voices during Shed Seven’s set as Issy Ferris and fellow Manc music royalty Rowetta took the stage for some supreme harmonies and what felt like a bit of a Sunday service moment.
But then it was time for the big guns and it really does feel like they’re among that calibre now. They’ve smashed Leeds, Glastonbury, Kendal – they even turned the Plaza and Edgeley Park back in Stockport into fully-fledged music venues – and they look more at home than ever on the big stages.
Blossoms’ Wythenshawe Park gig felt almost like a coming-of-age gig. (Credit: The Manc Group)
It feels mad to think that these lot have been going for 11 years when you first think about it, but when you actually sit back and look at the regular stream of top-quality indie bangers they’ve been putting out every couple of years, it starts to click into place.
Perhaps it’s because they’re still young men and have decades of releasing new music to come but they’re no longer the new kids and they haven’t been for ages – in fact, they’ve released some of the most popular contemporary releases in the genre consistently for a long time now.
Even in the final promo for their now landmark Wythenshawe Park concert, they did a spoof version of ‘Gary’ where one of the lines simply said ‘Honey Sweet’s a tune’ and, you know what, they’re right but the list goes much further than that.
‘Getaway’, ‘There’s A Reason Why’, ‘I Can’t Stand It’, ‘Your Girlfriend’, ‘What Can I Say After I’m Sorry?’ and on and on it goes. We heard them all in their very best iterations, with the band’s on-stage production now at a new level and Tom Ogden’s frontman chops up their with the best right now.
One thing we really enjoyed as a group of old mates from SK was that the set wasn’t the hits either; we got to roll back the years and enjoy the tracks from that debut album when we first started getting excited about a new band coming out of our hometown.
The big extended versions of ‘Blow’ and ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’, in particular, felt rather special.
Blossoms also treated Wythenshawe to some seriously good solos and breakout instrumentals. (Credit: The Manc Group)
But then you look at where the style has gone since then and you genuinely have to just step back and applaud their evolution since that breakout record.
It’s very hard for any band to find that balance of developing their sound and actually changing whilst still managing to nail that instantly recognisable feeling that lets you know it’s one of their songs but they always seem to manage.
Whether it’s those surviving 80s influences that have stood them in good stead since the start, those poppy keyboard riffs from Myles that help keep every tune as catchy as the last, they can collaborate with the likes of Jungle and CMAT whilst still sounding unmistakably like themselves. It’s quite the skill.
That’s why they very quickly went from the one current band from Stockport that people could name to one of the most recognisable modern names in British music with hordes of fans all over, not just Greater Manchester. Just look at the energy coming off that crowd, not to mention the sheer size of it:
Now, all that is simply to say that, at this point, if you’re still someone who only knows ‘that first one’ and is under the presumption that Blossoms are another indie band who fell into that trap of all their songs sounding pretty similar, you’re wrong and the sea of fans at Wythenshawe Park will tell you the same.
Whether you’ve been there from day one and have watched these lads, well, blossom into fully graduated performers and festival-toppers like this currently very sappy Stopfordian, or you got hooked after dozenth irresistible indie anthem, we’re sure you’re all in agreement: they’re proper headliners.
‘Charlemagne’ will forever be a favourite but make no mistake, they’ve come on leaps and bounds in every department since it helped launch their career, and even if it is still their biggest song when they’re headlining the likes of Glasto one day (you heard us), it’ll still sound incredible.
In fact, who cares: here it is from another angle – we’re off to do a bit of research about some reunion people are talking about…