5 APRIL 1957, Page 25

Himalaya Shuttlecock, by Hans Kopp (Hutch- inson, 18s.) : exploration

by necessity. An im- mensely tough and resourceful man, the author was one of several who escaped from British in- ternment in India during the last war. On his second attempt he was in a group that included Harrer, and, searching for freedom in general rather than an escape route in particular, he crossed the Himalayas in all six times. Less imaginative, less detailed than Harrer's, his accounts of Tibet are still of extreme interest and strangeness. A clumsy translation hardly detracts from them, for there is enough meat in the facts• themselves. Magnificent photographs.