My Father, Sandy

Nicholas Wollaston was four years old when his father Sandy was killed in 1934—shot dead by one of his Cambridge students. In this memoir, 70 years on, Nicholas finally confronts his loss and goes in search of the father whom he hardly knew. Sandy Wollaston, doctor, botanist, explorer, lived in the last great age of discovery. On extraordinarily tough expeditions to New Guinea, the Sahara, and the Himalayas, he collected new flora and fauna of lasting importance; and in 1924, in tweeds and leather shoes, he accompanied Mallory on his first trip to Everest. My Father, Sandy is a son's tribute and a voyage of discovery—part memoir, part travel history, but above all a moving love story.