Historian and author Tom Griffiths turns his attention to Antarctica in his latest book. Using his own Antarctic trip as a framing device, he explores the myriad historical, political, geographical, and personal links between Australia and Antarctica. Griffiths is a lucid, sympathetic writer, drawing extensively on both primary sources and the work of other researchers. He combines his interests in environmental and social history to provide a portrait of life in the last great wilderness. His overarching theme is the constant strange allure of this silent, deadly place. Griffiths gives us sketches of all of the expected personalities, from Cook to Scott to Mawson and beyond, but he also gives us the less celebrated ones: doctors, ornithologists, whalers, geologists, cooks and more. We glimpse their personal lives, and share some measure of their tragedies and triumphs. The unrelenting physical nature of Antarctica is a central theme of the book, and Griffiths provides fascinating background on the continent’s climate, geography and long prehistory. Tom Griffiths does a superb job of evoking the past, illuminating the present, and hinting at the future of the other great southern land. A great read for fans of travel writing, historiography, and all things Antarctic.

Heath Graham is a secondary teacher and bookseller for A&R Doncaster

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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