Return to Antarctica: The Amazing Adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott's Journey to the South Pole

by Adrian Raeside

Book Overview

Return to Antarctica marks the 100th anniversary of the Scott Expedition to the South Pole. The South Pole, one of the world's final - and most inhospitable - frontiers, had become the frantic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470153806
• ISBN13: 9780470153802
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

One of the best, if not the best book about Scott's 1911-1912 expedition

Return to Antarctica is one of the very best book written about the Scott 1910-1912 expedition. I've read everything printed about Antarctica's Heroic Period. What sets apart Adrian Reaside work is that you'll find inside tons of new information. Numerous quotes from Silas Wright diary, from Griff Taylor's memoirs and so on. You'll learn what was the relation between all those characters and it's fascinating. We learn, for one thing, that Silas warned Bill Wilson that Scott's calculations about fuel and food rations on the South Polar Journey were all wrong, and he ask Uncle Bill to bring the matter up with Scott. Naturally, Scott could not care less about the 24 years old opinion... There are 3 or 4 factuals errors those who knows the Scott expedition real well will find, but those are easyly forgive when balanced with the enormous amount of new material and insights. Go get the book, now.

Return to Antarctica: The Amazing Adventure of Sir Charles Wright on Robert Scott's Journey to the S

This book detailing a generations-long exploration adventure came across as fascinating; author Adrian Raeside did not disappoint. After enlightening the reader of his family's history with explorer Robert Scott's rather obsessed voyages to "conquer" Antarctica, Raeside spells out an informative and slightly humorous look into the "discovery" of the continent, listing with care the many subsequent explorations attempted thereafter by various groups and countries. Armed with unstinting research, family-held photographs and letters long stored away, Raeside paints a picture of the 1911 and 1912 expeditions of Scott and his crew, one that differed in many ways from the more legendary, "clean-shaven" version that he'd heard growing up. The reader learns of the experiments run by the crew of using snowshoes, VS skis, and how these simple tests aided future explorers. The included photographs depict a story all by themselves, but the maps Raeside drew of the smaller journeys taken--how far they got in so many days--were helpful in understanding better the frightful positions these men placed themselves in. This piece is a candid, studied look at an extreme journey, yet written with more familiarity than a mere documentary. Reviewed by Meredith Greene