Peak experiences

Last year was a good one for the memory of John Tyndall, the man who
explained why the sky is blue. As a research centre on climate change that bears
his name opened at the University of East Anglia, his pioneering glaciology and
repeated failed efforts to scale the Matterhorn were chronicled in Killing
Dragons, Fergus Fleming’s beautifully written story of how the Victorians
conquered the Alps. Published by Granta, £20, ISBN 1862072791.