Shackleton: How the Captain of the newly discovered Endurance saved his crew in the Antarctic

Description

The enthralling life, endurance and incredible leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton, told by the world's greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes. To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there. In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. What followed became legend. Throughout the long, dark Antarctic winter, Shackleton fights for his life and the lives of his men - enduring freezing temperatures, a perilous lifeboat journey through the ice-strewn sea, and a punishing march across the South Georgia glaciers to seek the one slim chance they have of rescue. Their situation is disastrous. Their survival would become history's most enthralling adventure. Yet Shackleton's critics have argued that the expedition was always doomed to fail. And that had Endurance not been destroyed by ice, his men would have suffered a slow and horrible death before completing their journey. No previous biographer has experienced even a tiny taste of the polar hell on earth endured by Shackleton and his men. That cannot be said of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who has been described as 'our greatest living explorer'. From Shackleton's pursuit of adventure as a young merchant seaman, through his rivalry with Captain Scott, culminating in the two remarkable expeditions to Antarctica that revealed his unrivalled leadership and personal courage under the most extreme of circumstances, Fiennes brings the story vividly and viscerally to life, his own near-death on the ice, fifty years after his subject's death, providing the necessary proof to silence Shackleton's critics once and for all.

Ranulph Fiennes is the only man alive ever to have travelled around the Earth's circumpolar surface (more people have been on the Moon!). His record-breaking expeditions include travel by riverboat, hovercraft, man-haul sledge, skidoo, Land Rover and skis. He is also the bestselling author of titles such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know, and the biography Captain Scott.

An insider's look into a very select club ... Fiennes' personal asides help to explain the unfathomable - such as how and why humans could and, more inexplicably, would persist with moving their tortured bodies across tortured landscapes in such extreme cold ... For anyone with a passion for polar exploration, this is a must read. * New York Times * THE definitive book on my hero Shackleton and no one could have done it better. "The Boss" would have heartily approved of such an authentic account by one of the few men who truly knows what it's like to challenge Antarctica -- Lorraine Kelly Fiennes makes a fine guide on voyage into Shackleton's world . . . What makes this book so engaging is the author's own storytelling skills -- Lorna Siggins * Irish Independent * With first-hand experience of polar expeditions, Fiennes relates these tales of exploration and survival, adding insight to Shackleton's journeys unlike any other biographer * Radio Times * An insider's look into a very select club . . . Fiennes' personal asides help to explain the unfathomable - such as how and why humans could and, more inexplicably, would persist with moving their tortured bodies across tortured landscapes in such extreme cold . . . For anyone with a passion for polar exploration, this is a must read * New York Times * Fiennes brings the promised perspective of one who has been there, illuminating Shackleton's actions by comparing them with his own. Beginners to the Heroic Age will enjoy this volume, as will serious polar adventurers seeking advice. For all readers, it's a tremendous story -- Sara Wheeler * The Wall Street Journal * Praise for Ranulph Fiennes' Captain Scott * - * Fiennes' own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that the men went through. * The Sunday Times * A valuable corrective to the trend of Scott debunking...One by one, and with the commendable attention to detail, Fiennes explodes the accumulated myths. * Sunday Telegraph * Sir Ranulph Fiennes has done Captain Scott's memory some service...he has certainly written a more dispassionate and balanced account than Huntford ever set out to do. -- Simon Courtauld * Spectator * Full of awe-inspiring details of hardship, resolve and weather that defies belief, told by someone of unique authority. No one is more tailor-made to tell [this] story than Sir Ranulph Fiennes * Newsday *