Author Description

In his introduction to this harrowing story of the 1912 Scott expedition to the South Pole, Apsley Cherry-Garrard states: 'Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.' The Worst Journey in the World is his account of an expedition which went disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members of Scott's team, the author was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. Despite the horrors Scott and his men eventually faced, Cherry-Garrard's account is filled with details of scientific discovery and anecdotes of human resilience in a harsh environment, supported by diary excerpts and accounts from other explorers. A masterpiece of travel writing, The Worst Journey in the World is the most celebrated and compelling of all books on Antarctic exploration.