HAVE you ever heard of the story of Maurice Wilson, the World War One veteran turned Mount Everest fanatic? I certainly hadn’t and while I wasn’t a million miles away when I assumed moustaches and doing all “for Queen and country”, it turned out the truth was all the more extraordinary. 

You see our Maurice caught the climbing bug back in a time when mountaineers took on the world’s highest peaks with less protection than your granny does on a 2020 shopping trip. 

It was the 1930s and nearly two decades from the triumph of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a time where men lost their lives in their desperate attempt to scale the Himalayas first. 

Glasgow Times:

And it was a time where Wilson, fresh from surviving the Great War, concocted a plan so wild I’ve had to double check it isn’t fiction. 

He would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit – all utterly alone. Now, Wilson didn’t know how to climb. He barely knew how to fly. 

This didn’t stop him, however, and off he went on his trek, teaching himself the ropes and leaving for the adventure of a lifetime. 

I won’t reveal how it ends (spoiler: there’s a reason you’ve heard of Hillary but not Wilson) but it’s been brought to life in a new book called The Moth and The Mountain, which I highly recommend, and was something I was thinking about when I ordered my latest takeaway for review. 

Less than a century later, here was I, flicking through JustEat and ordering a taste of the Himalayas to my Airdrie home. 

There was no fuss, no tale of heroism, no dying on the side of a mountain thousands of miles from my family, no grainy footage of me as a moustachioed Edwardian being played to schoolchildren.

Not the stuff of novels, then, and within half an hour the Himalayan Dine In had delivered food which promised an authentic taste of Nepal. 

Glasgow Times:

My fiancee and I opted for the Butter Chicken and Paneer Tikka Masala – both Himalayan specials – which were delightful. Rich in flavour and cooked to perfection. 

Sides-wise we enjoyed naan bread and pakora, both of which were up there with the very best North Lanarkshire has to offer. 

A fine meal without any fuss and a taste – however authentic of not – of the world.

Here’s to you, Maurice, for making it possible.