The Last Hero by Bill Tilman
Bill Tilman was part of the Himalayan climbing partnership with Eric Shipton, and later developed a new name for himself as the idiosyncratic skipper of the Bristol pilot cutter "Mischief". Fittingly, he was lost at sea in Antarctic waters in his 80th year. Using Tilman's own letters and diaries, this book traces the life of a driven and very private man.