The discovery of George Leigh Mallory¹s alabaster corpse, writes Patrick French, high on the slopes of Everest in the summer of 1999, had a spectacular universal impact. Books, articles, and television programs appeared, as the debate was revived as to whether he had reached the summit 75 years before. Mallory - his physical grace, the manner of his disappearance, the era in which he lived - will always hold the public¹s attention. He is the emblem of the early Everest expeditions. Written in 1926, The Epic of Mount Everest is Sir Francis Younghusband's vivid, now classic account of Mallory's three separate expeditions to Mount Everest in 1921, 1922, and, finally, 1924  when Mallory and Sandy Irvine vanished, igniting one of the world's great mysteries. Centuries pass, mountaineers pass, but Everest remains, an impassive killer, drawing people upward.