No comments about Blood Sweat and Lions.

No comments about A New Voyage And Description Of The Isthmus Of America.

5 comments about Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia.

1. This book fails in many ways. The reason it gets 2 stars instead of one is that it's hard to discuss Lawrence without some fascinating things coming through.

   First, Asher makes himelf part of the biography. He discusses his own personal travels in a manner that add absolutely nothing to the reader's understanding. The final paragraph of the book begins with "I." Further, the frequency and manner in which he interjects himself in the book is highly annoying.

   Second, there are numerous factual problems with the book. At one point Asher refers to Turks shooting their rifles at Bedu who are over two miles away. Even a trained sniper with modern equipment wouldn't take that shot. Further, his description of Lt. Junor's plane crash is at odds with other accounts. Asher says the plane erupted in flames even though there are published photos of the crashed plane that show otherwise. Lastly on this point, Asher doesn't use Tunbridge's writings on Lawrence's days in the RAF as reference material. It's a surprising omission.

   Third, as other reviewers noted, Asher writes extensively about Lawrence's psyche. This would be sensible if Asher was either trained in psychology or referenced studies by those who are; unfortunately, neither is the case. Instead there are a few bibliographical references to works on psychology, but none specific to Lawrence. Asher's vehement discussion of Lawrence's mother makes the reader wonder whether the author or the subject had the greater maternal relationship issues.

   Fourth, is Asher's style, or more accurately, styles. At times he uses the contemporary jargon of British soldiers, whereas at other points he writes in a very stilted manner adding unnecessary Latin phrases to the text. His best writing is when he's providing background or contextual material such as the discussion of British military actions elsewhere in WWI.

   Lawrence was one of the most fascinating personalities of the 20th century. He deserves a much better biography.




2. This is a large and invovled biography of T E Lawrence, written by an author who starts out as an admirer, and remains so to the end, though to a much lesser degree.

   Though there is a lot of information about the battles in the desert, i found this book most interesting when the author explores Lawrence's psyche and personality, and attempts (not always successfully or believably) at the truth behind the myth. He tests a lot of the claims about the great man, and mainly finds them wanting. This book is especially strong when it admits that it comes to no definate conclusion - rather, the author presents the facts as he sees them and lets the reader decide.

   This book is probably one of the better Lawrence biographies out there at the moment (though i would not say nearly the best) as it delves into the contradictions of the man and the myuth, and isn't afraid to 'pull punches' and not make excuses for the more troubling aspects of Lawrence's personality.

   I finished this book wondering why such a genius felt compelled to fabricate so much about his life, but also seeing him as more ' three-dimensional' than the common myth.




3. I am by no means a Lawrence scholar. I picked the book up at a discount because at the time I was preparing for a deployment to Iraq and was reading everything I could on the recent history of the Middle East. I found the book well written and fascinating. Historicaly accurate? Who knows? But it was a great introduction to a Western icon closely tied with the rise of the Saudi kingdom and the current map of the Middle East. After reading this I read Lawrence's own "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and who knows what the absolute truth was regarding Lawrence and his exploits. All I know is that this book made for a good reading. I appreciated Asher's insights into Arabic culture and customs. Certainly as we struggle to win the "hearts and minds" of the people in Iraq, any scholarship that helps us to understand how a Westerner can succesfully interact with the Arab peaple is a welcome read.



4. Whether or not you truly want to delve into the life of Lawrence of Arabia and this particular biography depends, I think, on whether you want to preserve the dynamic image of him as portrayed in the movie Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean or want to dig deeper into the eccentric world of the real T.E. Lawrence. I myself am no Lawrence scholar and have something akin to a passing interest in him as a sort of mythological figure like Wyatt Earp or Daniel Boone. This particular book was picked up randomly at a library book sale for a quarter to supplement my knowledge of T.E. Lawrence beyond the movie and to help me prepare to read his memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which I've heard is quite literary and even difficult without a bit of background on Lawrence and the Arab revolt.
   
   As a writer and a scholar, Asher is reasonably capable and has adequate credentials to tell his tale. What has been mentioned in other reviews and which I'll echo here is that he unfortunately wants to interrupt the flow of Lawrence's biography by interjecting his first-person accounts of his travels around the same areas Lawrence traveled. Although this story-telling technique doesn't ruin the book, it slows down the pace and adds little if anything the reader needs or wants to know. To me, it serves as an annoying distraction. It's typical also for Asher to want to pick apart the mind of T.E. Lawrence and give some debatable theories about the motives behind Lawrence's actions. Certainly, Asher appears to do his homework and his assumptions about Lawrence seem well supported, but what is hard to take is the unequivocal nature of Asher's assertions. He himself never doubts his assumptions.
   
   However, if the reader can accept that Asher's views are valid, then the reader should also be prepared to discover that Lawrence was more than a little eccentric, something bound to undermine the beautiful myth around the man. Aside from the details given about Lawrence's truly weird need for self-debasement in the form of flagellation as well as his decision to spend his adult life after Arabia as an enlisted man in the military, what bothered me most about Lawrence as discussed by Asher was his tendency to play with facts, an inclination apparently noted by other biographers. Given the reality that reality is often subjective, I do like to know the facts as accurately as they can be reported. Apparently, Lawrence seems to have appreciated the value of propaganda and chose to exploit it to achieve his ends, which are not terribly clear. Therefore, it's hard to know the whole truth about what happened during the Arab revolt, and Asher finds numerous holes in Lawrence's story. I'm happy to report that Asher does make clear that Lawrence accomplished much of what he claims to have accomplished, so Lawrence was indeed a dynamic fellow and the right person at the right time to do what he did, but he also makes clear that there are bizarre, masochistic motives that drive Lawrence. Therefore, if you want to truly know the man behind the myth, read on. If you want to preserve a myth, watch the movie, and then read an encyclopedia for broad details about Lawrence's life and the Arab revolt.



5. Having read a few books about T.E.Lawrence and his own tome I found Michael Asher's book easily the most enjoyable of the lot. Any man who took the time to physically visit the routes Lawrence (claims) to have made, has something to say. A very worthwhile book.
   
   Damien in Dublin.
   
   Sands of Death: An Epic Tale of Massacre, Cannibalism, and Survival in the Sahara
   Two Against the Sahara: On Camelback from Nouakchott to the Nile

1 comments about Pioneers of the Olympic Peninsula.

1. In this work, Leroy smith paints a vivid picture of the olympic peninsula from his early childhood through his adolescence and adulthood. Many of the events in the book happen between 1895 and 1920, and include milestones such as the early homesteads and the building of highway 101 through the northwest corner of the peninsula.
   
   Apart from forays to Port Angeles for mail and to respond to the draft for WWI, the location for this personal chronology mainly stays within the northwest quadrant of the peninsula - focusing on the Hoh river valley, and the Bocachiel store (which the author owned for many years).
   
   This work, although mostly anecdotal and based on the authors personal experiences rather than setting out to make a real history of the peninsula does achieve its goal of making real a portion of this country in a time that has now passed into mere memory.
   
   This part of the peninsula is just as wild today as it was in Leroy's time: perhaps now even moreso, since wildlife has had a chance to recover from the effects of hunters early in the last century. We cannot know where we should go without knowing where we've been - and for its part this book does a good job of showing how things came to be the way they are today.
   
   Encyclopedic by no means, this book was still a pleasant read and a good account of the life of one man growing up on the Olympic Peninsula.

3 comments about Scrambles Amongst the Alps (NG Adventure Classics).

1. As one of the early mountain climbers, Whymper was not only a dedicated climber but also an astute observer of human nature and the natural environment. His writings reflect a strong will and great intelligence. The artistry of his mountain scenes vividly illustrate his book and combined with his witty prose make for a mountaineering classic



2. I bought the book due to my interest in the period it covers -- early Alpine mountaineering. Edward Whymper was an interesting guy, and certainly one of the foreign pioneers of mountain climbing (including the first climb of Matterhorn). I found him to be less inspiring as an author -- the book's pace is slow, punctuated by various tangential discussions, e.g. geology of glaciers.

   It failed to capture my imagination, as other more receint mountaineering books have done -- try Gaston Rebuffat, Walter Bonatti, Chris Bonnington instead.




3. I found the book non-descriptal and factual. Written in a matter of fact English Literary form classic of that time period from a Chap. His knowledge is plentiful as he pours forth details of every sense on history of regions, region developement, ecology, geology...etc. But the going is very, very slow. It wasn't one of those books I pick up and read through in a matter of days. It took dedication days and I found it a bit depleting at times. I did rather enjoy his dry humor scattered throughout and his detailed outlook regarding natives of those areas of the time. Read if you're into history of mountaineering but have another book on the side to offset the pace.

5 comments about The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan.

1. If you enjoy history, especially military history, then you will enjoy this book. Written in much the same style as Byron Falwell's "Armies of the Raj," this amazingly true yarn about a Quaker who becomes, if not a king, the Prince of Ghor will keep you wondering just what is going to happen next. I absolutely enjoyed the book. My only negative comment is that the later years of his life are glossed over rather quickly, but, that is understandable since the last years were no where near as exciting as the first 40. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history or biographies. Enjoy.



2. Considering all that's happening in Afghanistan today, this is a timely and fascinating story of an American who travled there in the early 1800's. Fast paced book that's hard to put down and it gives a glimpse into early 1800's life in a country that most people still don't understand today.



3. Most people who pick up this book will already have read some of the travelogues of the "mad dogs and Englishmen" who wandered through Central Asia in the 19th and early 20th century: Burnaby and Nazaroff's memoirs, as well as any of Peter Hopkirk's books on the era.
   
   But here we have a real fish out of water story, and a fascinating one at that: an American Quaker leading, or joining, armies through Afghanistan and elsewhere in the name of, variously: the sitting ruler of Afghanistan, the deposed predecessor, his Sikh neighbor, the British Empire, and arguably himself as "Prince of Ghor."
   
   The tale is fascinating because it's so poorly-known, despite the fact that Kipling's fiction, which I understand to be inspired by Harlan and other adventurers of the time, is so well-known.
   
   Undoubtedly, Harlan's own financial misfortune and quiet death contributed to the obscurity of the narrative, but Macintyre does a great job of weaving the scraps together, and keeping the story's pace. An interesting read, and a bit of history which has earned its place in Central Asian lore.



4. A fascinating read in every respect. Macintyre is a fluid writer and the book is a real page turner. Apart from vivid details of the remarkable adventures of the first American in Afghanistan; the intrigues, machinations and sheer depravity of virtually all the players in the great game are in plain sight. The book also provides rare insights - via Josiah Harlan's prism - of British mendacity, misrule and astounding arrogance. Harlan's account of British shenanigans may have a tinge of exaggeration owing to his eventual deep hatred of the Empire and many of its emissaries but the substance of Harlan's writings can be corroborrated in other accounts such as the Great Hedge of India by Roy Moxham (another British author) and in more substantive form with relevant data in Angus Maddison's The World Economy. Macintyre deserves considerable praise for presenting the unvarnished truth, albeit through Harlan's pen, about the largely negative legacy of the British Empire. It is a shame that Harlan's story, despite this wonderful book, remains largely unknown both in the US and the East.



5. In Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, a young adventurer named Daniel Dravot penetrates feudal Afghanistan disguised as a cleric. In this nonfiction account with a similar title, MacIntyre, a columnist for The Times of London, tells the story of the real life adventurer who may have been Kipling's inspiration. He describes the life and adventures of Josiah Harlan (1799-1871), a young Quaker from Chester County, Pennsylvania, who set sail for China in 1822, telling his fiancée that they would marry when he returned. Upon reaching Calcutta, Harlan received a letter announcing that she was marrying another man. He resolved never to return home.
   
   So began his adventures. After a failed stint in the Indian army--an action for which the Quakers excommunicated him--Harlan met Shujah al-Mulk (1792-1842), an Afghan king exiled to India in 1809 after just six years on the throne. Harlan offered a deal: he would raise an army, subdue Kabul, and restore the kingdom. In exchange, he would become vizier, the equivalent of prime minister. The deal struck, Harlan began recruiting native troops, using the U.S. flag as his own. In 1827, he and his army began their long march. But he soon had second thoughts about his army's loyalty. He picked a trusted team, paid severance to the others, and launched his Plan B: dressed as a dervish, he made his way to Kabul, arriving in 1828 just as an epidemic of cholera ravaged the city. Years passed and Harlan changed his allegiance to Shujah's rival, King Dost Muhammad Khan (1793-1863), to whom he became aide-de-camp. This Afghan king granted Harlan's wish for power. The itinerant Pennsylvania Quaker and stilted lover became prince of Ghor, today a province in central Afghanistan.
   
   Harlan's story is riveting. MacIntyre describes his adventures, disillusionments, and eventual return to the United States as the only Afghan general to serve in the U.S. Civil War.
   
   Harlan was not alone in his adventures. In the nineteenth century, a handful of men made dangerous journeys through Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Tibet. Not all survived. Author Peter Hopkirk has chronicled their stories.[1] But it is rare that so much new material surfaces in one book, and for this MacIntyre deserves special credit. After learning of this curious American from cursory references and footnotes in old travelogues gathering dust in the British Library, MacIntyre made it his mission to uncover the saga of this historical Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern. His quest took him to Punjab and Pennsylvania, Kabul and California. He scoured through the official records of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore and poured over the intelligence archives of imperial India, whose agents were suspicious of Harlan's plots and schemes. Finally, in a Chester County museum, MacIntyre found a long-lost manuscript replete with love letters and sketches. Explanations of historical and cultural context weave together in his fluid prose. The result is impressive and well-worth reading.
   
   Note
   
   1. See for example, Great Game (London: Murray, 1990); On Secret Service East of Constantinople (London: Murray, 1994); Trespassers on the Roof of the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
   
   Michael Rubin
   Middle East Quarterly
   Fall 2006

5 comments about In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment: Destination: Estonia.

1. As an Estonian-American who grew up in the US and a visitor of Hiiumaa for a 2 -week vacation, after Wells' "Peace Corps Moment", I was pleasantly surpised to find how tourist friendly the island had become, from what I remembered from a previous visit. After reading the book, I realized how much Douglas Wells had been involved in creating the change. Hiiumaa has much to offer and Douglas captures the essence of Hiiumaa and the Estonian character and humor. I very much enjoyed his book and could not help but chuckle my way through it.



2. Not only a great read but also informative. As one of the first Peace Corps books I read I didn't know what to expect but it was surprisingly good. I have read numerous Peace Corps book since but this one remains my favorite.



3. I absolutely loved this book. Douglas Wells has a true Midwestern Charm about him that makes this book irresistable. I bought this book and figured I would save it for some summer reading on the farm. But sitting in my dorm I decided I wanted to glimpse over the first chapter and I couldn't put it down. I couldn't even study for my finals and all my friends were asking to borrow it because I seemed to enjoy it so much.
   
   Douglas Wells talks about his sometime arrogant views of Russians, falling in Love, and the frustration of the Peace Corps. He has some memorable stories about the first time he drank the local beer, sauna trips, and uncovering a lost bells from the WW2 era. A postive book about a Peace Corps experience and a real page turn. Might not change your life or rock your world but it will make you laugh and make you want to tell your friends some of his stories.



4. I am still living and working on Hiiumaa as it was years ago, when Douglas made his carrieer as volunteer. You cant find me in the book, but number of real people working on Hiiumaa in those years.
   
   All these stories have bit different angle (and definitely not all stories), when they are told by people, who know Douglas. This book doesnt teach you how to be a volunteer, but just describing a way of a man searching his role in community. ... and Douglas succeeded - we all know him as "Our own American".
   
   (...)



5. Excellent book, about one of the nicest places in the world. Tone is understated, sense of humour is - well - rather Estonian. Strongly recommended.

3 comments about Ancient Mariner: The Arctic Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Inspired Coleridge's Masterpiece.

1. Exploration stories often focus on the tropics. David Livingstone, Albert Russel Wallace, Richard Burton and others are readily recalled. The polar quests of Amundsen, Cook, Peary and Byrd probably follow in popularity. The upper latitudes seem almost overlooked. With little land mass approaching Antarctica and its pole, Canada and Russia are left for investigation by the enquiring mind. Having offered the life of one such wanderer in John Rae, McGoogan now reaches further back in time and place to reveal the life of Samuel Hearne. It's a fine study of a dedicated man.

   McGoogan's lively narrative traces Hearne's Royal Navy career, then follows him to the Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] station of Prince of Wales Fort. With the Canadian Arctic still a terra incognita, various quests were under consideration - the Northwest Passage and/or an inland sea leading to Asia being prime contenders. A more specific ambition arose with indications of a vast copper resource near the Arctic Sea. Hearne pursued this rumour by trekking across the Canadian tundra to find it. Various interludes occurred along the way.

   Hearne's expeditions to the Arctic seem pre-ordained to failure. Having but a hazy notion of what confronted him wasn't a hindrance. Bureaucracy proved the more serious impediment. The British attitude toward indigenous peoples compounded faulty notions of requirements for such a trip. With no idea of how Native Peoples? societies were structured, British HBC agents blundered into one crisis after another. In today's world, for a man to suggest that women must accompany the expedition to perform specialised tasks would bring down the wrath of the Human Rights Commission. In the 18th Century rise of the HBC in Canada women performed essential roles. No Native Peoples? women meant no Native Peoples? men. No men, no expedition. McGoogan explains all these circumstances without apology or condemnation. It's a professional historian's approach, worthy of full praise.

   The other aspect of British imperialism's shortsighted view is the relationships among Canada's Native Peoples. Hearne and others would counsel peace to those who had been warring when the British still painted themselves blue. These animosities were not easily quelled and might break out without warning nor discernible reason. Hearne was confronted with this near the mouth of the Coppermine River. McGoogan, relying on Hearne's own account, describes the massacre of an Inuit settlement leading to the naming of "Bloody Falls". The event remained fixed in Hearne's memory for the remainder of his life.

   Hearne, seeking an ephemeral copper lode, traversed immense stretches of the Canadian North. With various teams, but particularly relying on a Dene negotiator, Matonabbee, Hearne viewed the Arctic Ocean, the first European to reach it overland. The copper wasn't there, nor, in Hearne's opinion, was there any possibility of a Northwest Passage. He saw the Great Slave Lake, but when he later reported on his journey, skeptics were confounded by how far west it lay. Canada's vastness overwhelmed chair-bounded geographers. Hearne wasn't simply seeking mineral wealth. He recorded copious observations on plant and animal life in the region, as well as collecting information on the native peoples. More than just an adventurer, Hearne is credited by McGoogan as being one of earliest naturalists.

   Hearne's return to England was less than satisfactory. An account of his travels netted him not a penny - he died before publication. One event, a likely meeting with Coleridge at a boy's school, may have led Hearne to become the source of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. While the notion is McGoogan's speculative idea, it's plausible enough to be valid. It certainly provided a good, if unexpected, title for the life of an Arctic explorer. McGoogan presents that life vividly, with only minor, forgiveable, embellishments. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




2. This book by Ken McGoogan recalls Peter C. Newman's fascinating books about the Hudson's Bay Company: Caesars of the Wilderness and The Company Adventurers. I think that schoolchildren should be reading these books rather than dry old history tomes. And, if all you have read are these history textbooks, then I suggest you give yourself a chance to revisit these amazing explorers. The story of Samuel Hearne is magnificently told by Ken McGoogan and it will have you thirsting for more stories of the amazing men and women (yes, women!) who lived, fought, loved in a cruel land. It was a book I could not put down.



3. Any literature or history aficionado would enjoy this book. I have recently gotten interested in this area of the world and have just finished a historical fiction novel called The Tenderness of Wolves and a movie entitled Snow Walker that opened my eyes to this frozen area of the world and its inhabitants. The author has completed a tremendous amount of research into Mr. Hearn's life and adventures, but the anecdotes he tells make it come alive. I forgot to cook supper tonight because I was so engrossed!

2 comments about Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World.

1. Narcís Monturiol dreamed of bringing peace and democracy to the whole world. He did not just dream, but he acted. He was an inventor, and he meant for his great invention to become the revolutionary spark to bring humankind into the rosy and egalitarian future. His invention: the most advanced and only reliable submarine of his time, the mid-nineteenth century. In _Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World_ (Pantheon), Matthew Stewart has written an entertaining biography of the forgotten submariner, whose name is absent even from many histories of the submarine. There are many contingencies that conspired to keep him an unknown, and many tiny events that could have gone differently so that his invention would have descendants and we would know him as "The Father of the Modern Submarine." As it turned out, he was one of those inventors that didn't get the recognition he deserved, and his life only seems successful in retrospect. Nonetheless, he was a fabulous dreamer, thinker, and tinkerer, and deserves the rescue from oblivion provided by this volume.
   
   Monturiol, born in 1819, was a surprise entry into the submarine inventing game. By 1856, he was "pretty much your typical utopian socialist revolutionary." He was not an engineer. He had much to learn, teaching himself the chemistry by which he could produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the air. He developed thick glass for portholes, and once he realized how dark it was down there, he developed an external lighting system that worked just fine. He was the first to insist on double hulling for a sub; the external one protected the craft and gave it a hydrodynamic shape (these were good-looking, streamlined vessels that resembled giant fish), while the inner one had the safety sealing to protect the crew. It could dive to 20 meters, although with his perfectionism for safety, he made the craft far more pressure-resistant than that. It was steerable, and was propelled by its crew of sixteen cranking a shaft connected to a propeller. The propulsion system was not up to Monturiol's standards, as it could not reach what he thought was an acceptable minimum speed of three knots. When he realized this, he looked for another way of powering the ship; electrical motors (which would be used on the first military subs of the twentieth century) were not yet feasible, and steam had the hazard of fire within the confines of the vessel. Monturiol performed thousands of experiments to find a heat-producing chemical reaction that would generate steam and also produce oxygen as a useful waste product.
   
   It was a brilliant solution that never got a good try. Monturiol, never a good business planner, eventually had no funds for further prototypes. He had spent years of trying, and had sacrificed parts of his utopian dream to bring his machine into reality: a pacifist, he had tried to get military support; a communist, he had tried for capitalistic backing; an internationalist, he had tried to mine local Catalan enthusiasm. It did no good in the end, as eventually _Ictineo II_ went for scrap, breaking the inventor's heart. He scraped by for himself and his family by taking hack writing jobs and then a job in a brokerage house, eventually working his way up to being a cashier. He continued to invent; one of his later inventions, a method of preserving meat for export, ought to have made him millions, but it only made millions for the man who stole it from him. When submarines became practical in the next century, engineers had to re-learn many of the ideas Monturiol had pioneered, so his actual influence was slight. Nonetheless, after a century of neglect, Barcelona has a street sculpture of his sub, and a life-size mock-up to show just what the graceful craft looked like, and a street named after the inventor. Now with this admiring and well-illustrated biography, Monturiol further takes his belated but rightful place within the ranks of those who developed the submarine.



2. I'm Irish and live for some years now in Berlin. On a recent trip to Ireland, I came upon this book in a bookshop. I enjoyed reading it so much, I ordered a copy of it through Amazon to be sent to my eldest son who lives in the USA - I wanted him to read it, but I didn't want to give away my copy.
   This is a great story. I always enjoy a well written history book, particularly because a good one can take a potentially boring subject (history!) and bring it to life. Monturiol is the Don Quixote of submarines, and I really felt for him and his band of dreamers as he followed the call of his quest.
   Next step for me is a plan to some day go to Barcelona and see the remains and replica of his submarine.
   There is a quote I heard somewhere; 'A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for'. So is it with Monturiol. But in writing this book, Matthew Stewart never fails his reader.
   Read the book and enjoy.

2 comments about South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-17.

1. My good friend Antonia Martin just gave me this book for my birthday. Antonia, you are an absolute Treasure!

   I have become fascinated with the Shackleton story, not only for the awesome testament to dogged determination to succeed in the face of seemingly daunting odds that it is, but because apparently my Grandfather knew him quite well and worked on the planning of the journey back in London. Somewhere we have a signed original of the book from 1919 amongst Mother's belongings, back in England.

   This is a bone chilling visual and literary step by aching step trudge through the most inhospitable place on Earth. As the Endurance, their ship, died so their own endurance was born. And what an endurance that was!

   As my eyes wander the pages in the warm comfort of bed my mind is wind-whipped by the Antarctic blasts Shackleton and his team ultimately survived! It is quite simply one of the most amazing stories it has ever been my pleasure to absorb. I am in awe of the achievement described and pictured in this book.

   Everybody should read it!




2. I'm rather obsessed with Antarctic exploration at the moment, and reading material is harder to come by than I had first anticipated. This book has many good pictures and lots of diary entries, etc, from Shakleton and others. Well worth it.