The Longest Winter
Scott's Other Heroes
Published on 10. June 2010
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-7195-9580-6 (ISBN)
Description
Scott's Northern Party played an integral role in his iconic last expedition, but how did they survive? Through the eyes of the men involved, Meredith Hooper recounts one of the greatest tales of adventure and endurance, which has often been overshadowed by the tragedy which befell Scott.
Their tents were torn, their food was nearly finished and the ship had failed to pick them up as planned. Gale-force winds blew, bitter with the cold of approaching winter. Stranded and desperate, the six men of the Northern Party faced disaster. Searching out a snow drift they burrowed inside. Lieutenant Victor Campbell drew a line across the floor in the gloom to establish naval order: three officers on one side, the three seamen on the other. A birthday was celebrated with a carefully hoarded biscuit and they sang hymns every Sunday, so what kept these men going? Circumstances forced them closer together, their roles blurred and a shared sense of reality emerged. This mutual suffering made them indivisible and somehow they made it through the longest winter.
To the south, the men waiting at headquarters knew that the Polar Party must be dead and hoped that another six men would not be added to the death toll. Working from expedition diaries, journals and letters written by expedition members, Meredith Hooper tells the intensely human story of Scott's other expedition.
Their tents were torn, their food was nearly finished and the ship had failed to pick them up as planned. Gale-force winds blew, bitter with the cold of approaching winter. Stranded and desperate, the six men of the Northern Party faced disaster. Searching out a snow drift they burrowed inside. Lieutenant Victor Campbell drew a line across the floor in the gloom to establish naval order: three officers on one side, the three seamen on the other. A birthday was celebrated with a carefully hoarded biscuit and they sang hymns every Sunday, so what kept these men going? Circumstances forced them closer together, their roles blurred and a shared sense of reality emerged. This mutual suffering made them indivisible and somehow they made it through the longest winter.
To the south, the men waiting at headquarters knew that the Polar Party must be dead and hoped that another six men would not be added to the death toll. Working from expedition diaries, journals and letters written by expedition members, Meredith Hooper tells the intensely human story of Scott's other expedition.
Reviews / Votes
A cracking story * Daily Mail * 'In this shivering, unsung story of incredible survival and stiff upper lips, there is genuine heroism to be celebrated' * Saga * This book relives their fears and squalid surroundings from day to day. Even as you lie in the sun on holiday, you will be chilled, gripped and amazed by the human resilience displayed in such awesome conditions * Daily Mail * Hooper tells this story with an impressive combination of flair and scholarship . . . asignificant addition to the literature about the exploration of the Antarctic [and] a greatly enjoyable read * Polar Record * Antarctica historian Meredith Hooper has based this enthralling account on the men's diaries and letters. In a book where the expression "stiff upper lip" truly comes into its own, Hooper gives us a wonderful sense of immediacy as we follow the story of these extraordinary, forgotten men * The Age * A vivid reconstruction displays the true grit and peculiar Englishness of the six explorers who survived half a year holed up in an ice cave in the Antarctic . . . Meredith Hooper's authoritative and insightful chronicle of the "eastern party" of Robert Scott's final Antarctic expedition . . . the real pleasure lies less in the details of suffering and survival than in a journey into the strange, alien landscape of the Edwardian male mind . . . Hooper, with her keen antipodean's eye, finds diversion in the curiosities of class and etiquette on an awfully English expedition . . . this enjoyable, vivid study of the English in extremis * Sunday Times * Hooper burrows deeply into the courageous psyche of these enduring heroes, critically resurrecting their role in Polar history that otherwise might have been forgotten. A book that adds much value to the literature of Antarctic exploration * Oxford Times *
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Illustrations
2x8 b/w
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7195-9580-6 (9780719595806)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2010
John Murray Learning
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Meredith Hooper has the rare, possibly unique, distinction of being selected as a writer in Antarctica by three government programmes - the US National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Program, twice; by the British Admiralty, travelling on HMS Endurance; and by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions. She has written a range of books and articles on Antarctica (general market, academic, children's). The Ferocious Summer was published in last August.
Meredith Hooper is a UK Trustee of the Brussels-based International Polar Foundation, a Trustee of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and served as a juror on the British Antarctic Survey's Artists & Writers Programme. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal by the US Congress in 2000.
Meredith was born in Australia and has been living in the UK since taking up a scholarship at Oxford to do post-graduate research.
Meredith Hooper is a UK Trustee of the Brussels-based International Polar Foundation, a Trustee of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and served as a juror on the British Antarctic Survey's Artists & Writers Programme. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal by the US Congress in 2000.
Meredith was born in Australia and has been living in the UK since taking up a scholarship at Oxford to do post-graduate research.