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Ernest Shackleton was obsessed by the Antarctic.
He wanted to be first to the South Pole, partly for the glory but also because he felt he had to redeem himself after Scott sent him back on the relief ship in 1903, because of his “ill health”.
Here, gathered together for the first time, are 156 letters and telegrams exploring the inner thoughts of an heroic man with far-reaching dreams.
The author details the history leading up to the expedition, through the trials of the year on the ice and the various journeys and then the return to England and the reception they received from the public, the press and such as the Royal Geographic Society.
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details.
368pp, 235 x 165mm. Over 40 photographs and illustrations; pull-out map of Explorations and Surveys of the Expedition (440 x 430mm).
Hard-back, jacketed, blocked on spine. Limited edition of 450 copies individually numbered and signed by the author £27.50
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Brother Egbert is a medieval monk who spends most of his time in the scriptorium copying out pages from the Bible. In his spare time he writes his own stories gleaned from passing travellers and local gossips.
The first story tells of Tom, The Carpenter of Willingford, who is tricked into setting out on a journey to the Eastern Kingdom to play and sing at the Royal Court.
En route he has to perform for his supper and so gains in skill and confidence. Arriving in the Eastern Kingdom he is saddened to find a wasteland where all the trees have been removed and the land has become dry and dusty and barren.
Tom eventually gets to play for the King who is cheered by his music and touched by his simple rural wisdom. He is despatched to find tree seeds for the land and a herbal remedy for the King’s ailing daughter.
The book is beautifully written and illustrated by Steve Eggleton, with calligraphy by Cathy Stables. It is aimed at children up to 10years of age but will appeal to older children and adults alike.
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details.
64pp, in full colour throughout. £9.95
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An absolutely stunning book for children of all ages….
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For little more than 100 years the Arctic and Antarctic have inspired some of the greatest stories ever told. The exploits of Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton and many, many others have inspired and awed millions of people over the years.
Ice Tracks brings together for the first time the accounts of eighteen of our greatest present day Polar explorers — Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Robert Swan, Rosie Stancer and Ann Daniels, Matty McNair and Dr Viktor Boyarsky—English, Russian, Swedish, Canadian—they all share a love of the extreme.
Their expeditions across the two Poles have demanded extraordinary bravery, unimaginable privation and sometimes a little luck.
Ice Tracks, with its superb photographs, leaves no iceberg unturned to lay bare today’s Polar world.
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160pp, in full colour with over 70 photographs, maps and drawings £14.95 Order
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Once the pole had been ‘conquered’ by Amundsen and Scott the next great journey was the crossing of the Antarctic continent, first attempted by Filchner in 1912 and then by Shackleton in 1914. As part of the International Geographical Year the Trans-Antarctic Expedition was set up with Vivian Fuchs in charge. He would start from a base on the Weddell Sea and after reaching the Pole, continue to the Ross Sea using supply depots laid by a New Zealand team working from McMurdo and led by the conqueror of Mount
Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary. In January 1956 an advance party of eight men was left at Shackleton base to build accommodation, explore and lay depots to ease the passage of Fuchs’s team the following year.
This account, based on the diary of the young medical officer, shows how close to disaster they came and how lucky they were to survive. Fuchs later admitted
that apart from Scott’s marooned Northern Party theirs was the most severe ordeal
in the history of Antarctic exploration.
Further
details
144pp 16pp colour pictures, 50 photographs, paperback £12.75
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