James Hilton · 1933 · overland

James Hilton's 1933 novel, which gave the world the word Shangri-La, in which a hijacked plane carries four travellers deep into the mountains of Tibet to a hidden lamasery in a valley where no one grows old. Serene, strange and quietly melancholy about the longing for a refuge from a broken world. Baskul and Shangri-La are imagined places, sited here approximately in the high Himalaya and Kunlun.

1. 1
   Baskul

   Amid a frontier evacuation, four passengers board a small plane at Baskul, only to realise it has been hijacked and is flying east, into the unknown.

2. 2
   The Crash

   Out of fuel, the plane crash-lands high among the peaks of Tibet, the pilot dying as mysterious robed figures appear out of the snow.

3. 3
   Shangri-La

   Led to the lamasery of Shangri-La in the sheltered Valley of the Blue Moon, where time seems to stand still and the world's treasures and wisdom are quietly preserved.