This Everlasting Silence

Dark-eyed beauty Paquita Delprat and dashing explorer Douglas Mawson became engaged on the eve of his 1911 Antarctic expedition. Mawson was to be away for fifteen months, and their life together would begin after this long separation. But the trek was a disaster. Two men perished and Mawson staggered back to the base only to find that the waiting Aurora had given up and set sail literally hours before. Mawson's return was delayed another full year, stretching the lovers' endurance to the limit. This intimate, unusual collection of the letters Paquita and Douglas wrote to one another tells a romantic story. Long months intervened before ships could deliver them to and from Antarctica. At one stage, due to an oversight, Paquita waited 22 months to hear from Mawson. In one letter she wails, 'This everlasting silence is almost unbearable...' This Everlasting Silence sheds light on previously unknown aspects of Sir Douglas Mawson's life and will appeal greatly to both scholars and general readers.