The dramatic disappearance of the explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions in their race to reach the South Pole was seen by their contemporaries as creating heroes in a new mould. A few years later, during World War I, Scott's rival Shackleton also nearly met his death in the Antarctic, becoming in the process another hero. Both men were set on a pedestal, uncritically, because they tried and failed.
As the years have gone by, Scott's reputation has been weighed in the balance with Shackleton's - and found wanting. Even the precious journals that Scott wrote on the journey are no longer in print, while photographs of the expedition have gathered dust in scientific institutes. In this new edition of the journals, Peter King re-examines Scott's exploits, setting his own account against modern studies of the Polar Race and thus enabling readers to make their own judgements for the first time.
The text is illuminated by a selection of photographs, many of breath-taking quality, taken by one of the greatest Antarctic explorers, Herbert Ponting, who accompanied Scott. More than a hundred and forty of these, many only recently released by the Royal Geographical Society, bring this extraordinary story to life.
