Out of This World

Book excerpt: In 1949, renowned travel writer Lowell Thomas, Jr., along with his father, the American writer and broadcaster best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous, was invited by the Tibetan government to make a film there, in the hope that their reports would help persuade the U.S. government to defend Tibet against the Chinese. The trip lasted 400 days, and the father-and-son team were the last Westerners to reach Lhasa before the Chinese invasion and occupation. The trek garnered worldwide attention when Lowell Thomas, Jr. succeeded in getting his father safely across the Himalayas to India after a serious accident on a 17,000-foot pass. Out of This World, which was first published in 1950 and became a bestseller, tells the story of this journey that the author describes as “a climax to his father’s lifetime of adventure” and “probably the greatest travel adventure I will ever have”. A thoroughly gripping autobiography.