Tim Chamberlain 🧭

New podcast! Talking with @peterhhansen.bsky.social about how #mountaineering & #modernity emerged together & how the idea of the 'summit position' came to encompass concepts of sovereignty and empire from the #Alps to #Everest.
shorturl.at/oI5fh
@waymarks.bsky.social @calmandfearless.bsky.social

BBC Sounds - Lost Horizon by James Hilton - Available Episodes Listen to the latest episodes of Lost Horizon by James Hilton on BBC Sounds.

BBC are currently replaying their 1981 adaptation of James Hilton's Lost Horizon. #Orientalism on steroids with some very questionable accents.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...
Recommend @waymarks.bsky.social #OtherEverests chapter on Western escapism in the #Himalaya for context shorturl.at/Pchxp

बाउ को धुरी छैन “Father Has No Roof over his head”

An #OtherEverests #ConfluenceCollective exhibition in Kalimpong 21-27 February 2026 shorturl.at/YrbVv

Lost archives & hidden histories of Indigenous high-altitude workers from the 1920s & 1930s.

@waymarks.bsky.social @andrewwyatt.bsky.social

Explorers on Screen Explorers on Screen

Forthcoming for historians of exploration & film studies:

"Explorers on Screen: Adventure! Danger! Romance!" Sue Matheson, Cynthia J. Miller, eds. (Edinburgh University Press: June, 2026).

Full Info: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-explore...

#exploration #film #history #empire #place #gender 🗃️

TIBETAN GIFT-GIVING, BRITISH INDIFFERENCE, AND THE ERASURE OF PROVENANCE IN COLONIAL INDIA* Abstract. In 1913, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet dispatched a lavish diplomatic gift to the viceroy of India. However, upon its arrival the colonial a

New on advance access: "Tibetan Gift-Giving, British Indifference, and the Erasure of Provenance in Colonial India"

by @tibetcurator.bsky.social (@uomsalc.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...

Check out @waymarks.bsky.social's review of @sbilston.bsky.social's "The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder and Obsession," published in 2025 by @harvardpress.bsky.social; review now available @hnetreviews.bsky.social #envhist #envhum #plantstudies
www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact | Aeon Videos A lone glaciologist performs spiritual and scientific rituals to assess humanity’s impact in Bhutan’s sacred mountains

'Mountain Man' - glaciologist, Phuntsho Tshering, the only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact.

Check out @waymarks.bsky.social's review of @josephaseeley.bsky.social's "Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria," published in 2024 by @cornellupress.bsky.social; review now available @hnetreviews.bsky.social
networks.h-net.org/group/review...

Welcome aboard!

It's an absolutely brilliant and fascinating book. As you could probably tell from my review, I really enjoyed reading it!

"Border of Water and Ice is a fascinating, richly researched, and accessibly recounted history that will appeal to a wide range of scholars variously interested in empires, environments, borderlands, and area studies" Thank you @waymarks.bsky.social for the close reading!

12 inspiring stories about the lives of Sherpa mountaineers There have been many books about Sherpa mountaineers over the years, but few have been written from the perspective of Sherpas themselves. One that comes close is Sherpa by Pradeep Bashyal and Anki…

🌟 New blog post ✍️

There have been many books about Sherpa mountaineers over the years, but few have been written from the perspective of Sherpas themselves ⛏️🗻

One that comes close is Sherpa by Pradeep Bashyal and Ankit Babu Adhikari, which I read recently 📚
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/12...

There was also a recently published 'reply' to "The Outsider", written from the perspective of the unnamed Arab's brother: "The Meursault Investigation" (2015) by Kamel Daoud.

Fifty years ago, Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Everest – why do so few people know her story? Despite the extraordinary feats of Tabei and many other adventurous women, sexism and misogyny in mountaineering have persisted for decades.

Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Chomolungma 50 years ago this week. Jenny Hall recounts this milestone and considers why she isn't more celebrated:
theconversation.com/fifty-years-...

That's right! - I cited your 'Speech of the Subaltern Transcribed' article which was really useful for me in thinking through elements of one of my chapters which might be of interest to you ... (Chapter 5). Many thanks! - Good to know Google Scholar works (sometimes, at least)!

I've just been alerted to @waymarks.bsky.social's PhD dissertation 'Empirical adventurers: Science and imperial exploration in East Tibet, 1900-1949', which is well worth a look here: eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/55.... Lots of interesting stuff happening in the mountain history space!

Thanks, Ariana - that's very kind. Hope there might be something of interest in there for you!

Many thanks, Mikko. Your post is the first notification I've had that it's been uploaded to the college library's website! - Feeling more than slightly trepidatious knowing it's finally out there making its way into the big wide world.

Yep, that World History one and the one on Archaeology were my favs! - Hopefully my old copies went on to similarly inspire/entertain someone else in the way they did me.

I remember kids fighting over the ghosts and monsters ones in our school library!

Ha, ha! - I really wish I'd kept hold of mine. I'd love to look back at them now. I had quite a few history ones and would spend hours looking at all the really intricate drawings in them, plus an excellent Science Dictionary.

Usborne books were the best!

That's barely enough time to properly sharpen a pencil.

I agree. I had to use the Harvard referencing system (Repeatedly, 1994) throughout my undergraduate degree (Repeatedly, 1997). I've always thought it's like being poked in the eye (Repeatedly, 1994, Poked, 1997) while reading (Repeatedly, 1994; Repeatedly, 1997). But cool, re: MA essay>> article. 😎👍

The cover of Exploration Map by Map.

A section on the Mexica.

A section on the Magellan-Elcano expedition.

A section on Orellan’s journey down the Amazon.

Great to see Exploration Map by Map out in print. I had a blast writing about some epic feats of exploration & migration in Latin America, from the Mexica to Magellan.

Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned maps, it’s on sale now: www.dk.com/uk/book/9780...

There always used to be a blue Trabant parked in one of the back streets near the University of London's Senate House. I'm not sure if it's still there these days, but always used to make me smile whenever I saw it there.

Today's news reminds me of the first visit of women to the South Pole in 1969

Major new publication for the #TravelWriting Studies folk - Twenty-First-Century Perspectives on British Travel Writing, edited by the dream-team of @afquaireau.bsky.social, Emanuelle Peraldo and Samia Ounoughi. Lots of excellent stuff in here and some interesting perspectives on contemporary work.

Cover of my book 'Empire, Tourism, and Colonial Knowledge', with an image of a tourist party at the top of the Borobudur temple complex on Java in the 1860s.

Book is happening – we've got a cover! 'Empire, Tourism, and Colonial Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka' coming later this year from Leiden University Press!

KUMANO: Spirit of the Forest - Barakan Discovers | NHK WORLD-JAPAN Pioneering ecologist Minakata Kumagusu explored the forests of Kumano. Join Peter Barakan as he follows Minakata's path and discovers a universe in nature.

There's also a longer, more in-depth version of this which is well worth watching: www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...