King of the Cloud Forests

Strangely old-fashioned this. Stories of missionaries in China, yetis and old scientists seem to suggest another age of children's books. It's good stuff and it works as Ashley becomes the king of the yetis, creatures like Swift's Houyhnhnms, gentle and noble. This section is the core of the book, framed by the harsher 'real' world, it seems like an elusive dream, a lost Eden where Ashley is mistaken for an earlier human, whose tobacco tin, penknife and picture have become totems. Finally he makes the decision to leave and eventually traces that earlier 'King', now an old man, a respected and famous scientist who can at last share his loss too.