The Man Who Mapped the Arctic

Telling the story of George Back, this book looks at one of nature's survivors. Perhaps having learnt the art of survival at the tender age of 12 when, as a Royal Navy volunteer, he spent five years in a Napoleonic prison. Exploration of the frozen north was then beset by almost insurmountable difficulties, especially the terrible hardship of over wintering. There were rows with the Hudson's Bay Company, rations that failed to get through, ambush by Eskimos and, in extremis, there was possibly even cannibalism. But Back came through such trials and his crowning achievement was the discovery and descent of the great fish river, now named after him, the Back River. His final expedition almost led him to a watery grave off Southampton Island, but he brought his leaking ship home and lived to a ripe old age. A gifted artist and map-maker, Back was a courageous and successful explorer of one of the world's least hospitable regions, and has long been denied the limelight he deserved and would undoubtedly have enjoyed.