I could not put this book down. Tony Bullimore has the ability to describe his sailing experiences in vivid detail, and he has many gripping tales to tell. Having survived some wicked ordeals at sea, he always bounces back with new energy in finding another boat, and sailing again to new horizons and new drama. We can only admire his courage and will to survive. His perserverence against the smallest of odds is an inspiration to us all. Tony cleverly links in his life history without letting the story miss a beat. This book is a 'must read' for all adventure junkies and seafarers alike.

This is an amazing collection of anecdotes, history and geography of a little known natural phenomena known as the RIS. I first came across this volume while collecting material for my doctoral disertation, and found in invaluable.

This book provides an excellent, (annotated) first-person narrative by an early polar explorer. The annotation provides just enough supplementary material to provide context and clarification for the modern reader, without interrupting Charles Wright's voice. The illustrations are really marvelous.

Having read the book about five years ago, I don't remember a great deal of detail, but one moment stands out: Wright describes, off-handedly, waking up in a sleeping bag soaked by a puddle of ice that melted as he slept on it. Anyone who has spent the night in a drenched, cold sleeping bag knows how hard a person you have to be to take such a thing as a matter of course.

(I should mention that I am the son of the editor of this book, so my views are perhaps not entirely unbiased.)

My good friend Antonia Martin just gave me this book for my birthday. Antonia, you are an absolute Treasure!

I have become fascinated with the Shackleton story, not only for the awesome testament to dogged determination to succeed in the face of seemingly daunting odds that it is, but because apparently my Grandfather knew him quite well and worked on the planning of the journey back in London. Somewhere we have a signed original of the book from 1919 amongst Mother's belongings, back in England.

This is a bone chilling visual and literary step by aching step trudge through the most inhospitable place on Earth. As the Endurance, their ship, died so their own endurance was born. And what an endurance that was!

As my eyes wander the pages in the warm comfort of bed my mind is wind-whipped by the Antarctic blasts Shackleton and his team ultimately survived! It is quite simply one of the most amazing stories it has ever been my pleasure to absorb. I am in awe of the achievement described and pictured in this book.

Everybody should read it!

The current polar explorer Ann Bancroft said she was first inspired to visit Antarctica after the breathtaking pictures and reports of Shackleton's attempts to cross that continent. As she attempts to become part of the first women's team to traverse Antarctica she is passing by Shackleton's Glacier and must be remembering his team and their efforts. The actual photographs of Shackleton's ship in the book Spirit of Endurance and the reproduction paintings of each adventure and challenge they faced draw the reader into the tale. Students are fascinated by the hardships the men encountered and endured. The decision regarding the fate of their sled dogs was as heartbreaking to the reader as it must have been to the men of Endurance. The remarkable heroism and perseverence of Shackleton and his crew is an inspiration to the adventurers in all of us.

It is a treat to see this work available again to the general reading public for a number of reasons. First, the book remains as fresh, exciting, and stylistically pleasing as it did when first appearing many years ago. Also, the book helps clarify and confirm the skills of the remarkable Frederick Cook as a writer of great merit, a photographer of immense talent, an intrepid and resourceful explorer, and perhaps above all as a kind and helpful human being both toward his fellow travellers and toward the indigenous peoples through whose lands he travelled over his long exploring career.

These talents of Cook's have been too often obscured by the intense and often acrimonious debates that have raged for nearly a century over whether he really achieved his claims of having been the first man to climb Alaska's Mount Mckinley and the first man to reach the North Pole. Whether he achieved those claims or not, his achievements on the expedition to Antartica recounted in this book cannot be denied as he played a vital role in keeping the crew as physically and psychologically sound as was possible during the long Antarctic night while their ship, THE BELGICA, lay trapped in the grinding ice. Cook was ahead of his time in realizing that raw penguin meat would protect the crew from scurvy and that sitting in front of a hot bright fire would help counteract symptoms of what we now call "seasonal affective disorders" that include depression, withdrawal, and other emotional problems. Cook was also instrumental in devising a system of digging and blasting out canals through the ice that allowed the ship to eventually escape into open water many months earlier than would otherwise have been possible. During their many months of confinement, Cook and his companions were pioneers in being the first to travel out onto the continent and experiment with Cook's novel ideas of sleds (they used a sail when the wind was favorable) and tents (Cook's design became a lightweight and sturdy standard for many future espeditions.)

But Cook is generous with praise for the other members of this international crew that included the Captain, Adrian de Gerlache who, though first forbidding Cook to serve raw penguin, was in general an enlightened leader who was instrumental in helping Cook in the planning and execution of their strategy for digging out of their predicament. We meet, too, the young Roald Amundsen who would become a lifelong friend of Cook's and who would later become famous for being the first man to reach the South Pole in his famous race against the ill-fated Scott expedition.

Cook's extraordinary photographic gift is amply shown in his famous moonlight picture of THE BELGICA as it sits trapped, its deck and rigging glittering in a sheath of ice. This picture, and others, astound when we consider the primitive equipment in use at the end of the Nineteenth century.

Cook brings home the excitement, the beauty, and the tragedy of this remarkable tale with a wonderfully descriptive writing style that will win over those readers with a yen for adventures of exploration, not only of a place but of the human heart and mind.

Congratulations to shackleton. And the pictures were great!! My favorit part was where they slid down the maountain.

As the title of my review suggests, I can hardly offer enough praise for this book. Caroline Alexander's "The Endurance" is a fantastic book, masterfully bringing to life Shackleton's remarkable adventure. Prior to reading the book, I was familiar with Shackleton's expedition from various magazine and television specials and wondered if another account of the story was worth reading. With this book, the answer is absolutely yes.

Ms. Alexander does a skillful job intertwining her narrative with diary and journal entries, written accounts such as books and articles, and interviews with family members. The book is well researched and written in a concise and enjoyable, storyteller's prose. In addition to the writing, the author includes numerous photographs from Frank Hurley, the expedition's photographer. These pictures are a great addition to the story. They allow the reader to "fill-in" visual images of the setting and the expedition, so that the author can concentrate on the story and the crew. The reader's time is not spent on overly drawn-out descriptions, but rather on the personalities of the crew, Shackleton's leadership skills, the perils of the journey and the human spirit displayed by all the men involved. Simply put, this book makes its readers feel good; you will admire these men and enjoy their story.

As a serious Endurance student I say bravo! Ms. Alexander has brought a fresh perspective to one of the greatest survival stories of all time. The previously unpublished Hurley photographs are fabulous. She also took the time to give far more detailed explantions behind the photos than would most writers.

The details from the time the Endurance sank through the arrival of the James Caird at South Georgia are vivid, putting to use the very personal feelings and perspectives from the crew members. She also does an excellent job in "fleshing out" the men's personalities, along with their quirks and rivalries. She uses quotes from some of the "less important" members as other writers have not.

I found the short excerpts of the men's lives after the journey until their deaths absolutely fascinating. This part, along with the previous descriptions and photos added to my feeling that these were real men and not just some caricatures from an anecdotal story left over from someone's fading memory.

This book will eventually replace Lansing's Endurance as the most popular source of this great story.

Caroline Alexander's book touches something deep within our human spirit; challenge, hope, survival and love of life. For those who love to challenge themselves by the outdoors with the hope of great rewards these experiences can bring, read this book to understand how these pursuits can also provide very real dangers, except in this book the dangers go beyond one's imagination - twenty-two months in wet, sub-freezing conditions on ice, frozen lands and the Antartic's violent oceans.

If you have read or enjoy reading books and adventures like Krakauer's "Into Thin Air," this book is a MUST read.

Frank Hurley's photographs are excellent. Frank Hurley's committment to taking these pictures is unbelievable when considering the environmental conditions of this part of the world.

My emotions rose and fell with the reading of "The Endurance." The book is a well-written tribute to the 28 men of the expedition. These men are adventurers and heroes beyond description. I was pleased with Ms. Alexander's afterword, which described what became of each of them after their rescue, this completed the story.

Although modern writers discussing the events of the Endurance expedition have indeed pretty much forgotten this side of the expedition, it should be pointed out that Sir Ernest Shackleton himself covered it in his own book "South." Bickel has used recently found documentation and other materials to put together the complete tale of the Ross Sea Party of the Endurance expedition. After their ship Aurora was pulled away from her moorings by a storm, the men left on shore brilliantly improvised stores and equipment to lay the depots required for the planned crossing the Antarctic continent. During their sledging journeys one man died, and the survivors had to struggle to save two more (who ultimately were lost through their own foolishness in crossing sea ice when a storm threatened). All in all this is a valuable contribution to the story of the Endurance expedition. I also very highly recommend "Mawson's Will" by the same author.

A well written work that reads like a novel about the members of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party whose mission it was to lay food and supply depots for Shackleton's crossing of Antarctica. The brave men united by adversity, experience such unimaginable hardships, that as the reader I found myself rooting for these brave and courageous men to abandon their mission and save themselves. Their persistance to carry on and complete their mission while enduring every suffering possible of the Antarctic is testament to the true character and grit of these men. For anyone who has read any of the published "ENDURANCE" works this book is a must read. The adventure will not be complete until you read this bone chilling tale of the human spirit, unbroken.

Having read about Shackleton several years ago I am glad to see more interest in this amazing story and people looking at Shackleton's leadership which was incredible.

I am troubled by one thing though, in almost everything I have seen and read (such as the Nova special, Caroline Alexander's Book, and Alfred Lansing's book) there is almost no mention about the crew on the other side of the Antarctica. In Shackleton's South, he wrote about checking on the men, but never went into the hardship they faced. I was disturbed that the Nova special did not even mention there was a crew laying supplies on the other side.

In some ways, I actually think their story is more amazing the story of the crew of the Endurance. The crew was to lay supplies almost to the pole and then one night a storm came in a blew the ship back out to sea and then the men on shore had a very small fraction of the supplies from the ship. They still had to lay depots for Shackleton as they did not know there were not going to make it. At one point in the book, the men start out on a sledging journey that to this day holds, the record for the longest trip in both miles and time.

If you are really into Shackleton, you MUST read about the other half of the story in this book.

Casual glancers at the title of this book about the 1912 Scott expedition may automatically assume that it refers to the death of Captain Scott and four of his companions on their return from the South Pole. Instead, "The Worst Journey in the World" was the trip to the Emperor Penguin rookeries undertaken in the middle of the Antarctic winter by Cherry-Garrand, Dr. Wilson, and Lt. Bowers, the latter two of whom would die with Scott on the polar trip. It makes absolutely terrifying reading; the men were not equipped or trained for the rigors of the expedition, and the scientific results from their collection of penguin eggs appear to have been absolutely nil (Shackleton fans will be interested to know that Dr. Eric Marshall suggested such a journey during the 1907-1909 Shackleton expedition, but Shackleton thought the idea was cracked and refused to countenance it). Cherry-Garrand is indeed a bit of a ragged writer, but as a non-heroic account of the Scott expedition (compared to Scott's own journals, written with Posterity in mind and "improved" by J.M. Barrie) this book is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the heroic era of Antarctic exploration.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard has truely given us an epic for exploration and adventure. This book conveys the horror, tragedy, and even ironic humor of Scott's ill-fated last expedition in an extremely eloquent manner.

Cherry-Garrard could not more fairly credit his companions. From the beginning, he is modest and places huge credit on his fellow explorers. In particular, he talks about Bowers, Wilson, and Scott with a sense of awe and immense respect.

The countless horrors of Scott's journey are described graphically, and it was easy to imagine anything from leaping from ice-flow to ice-flow for ours on the depot journey to stumbling upon the dead bodies of his friends. I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Worst Journey was incredibly inspiring. After reading the book, I felt like I could do anything, take on any challenge. The troubles they endured, the lifestyle they adapted to, is mind-numbing. It is difficult to imagine surviving such things.

In the "Winter Journey," one of the most difficult Journey's ever experienced by man, Cherry-Garrard and two other men struggle through the Antarctic Winter to Cape Crozier to obtain Penguin Eggs. They travel in pitch black, around giant crevasses, in frozen clothing, in -70 degree temperatures, and with sleeping bags that take hours to get into. This was the most intense, gripping reading I have ever done.

No matter who you are, you will like The Worst Journey In The World. Fantastic writing, gripping plot, and visual descriptions will keep you glued to the book. And when it's done, you will not want to stop reading.

You cannot read this book without being inspired by the courage of the early Antarctic explorers; you cannot read it without being impressed by the good literary taste of the author; nor can you, after reading this book, fail to have admiration grow in your heart for the self-ignoring author. Cherry-Garrard was a first-rate Antarctic explorer, a first-rate writer, and a first-rate human being. What makes Capt. Robert F. Scott, Dr. Edward Wilson and their fellow explorers particularly admirable is that their chief goal was not fame, but to acquire Scientific Knowledge: it was the interest in the penguins as an important evolution chain that led to the Worst Journey by the three valiant men, and it was, in part, the insistence not to abandon the 30 pounds of specimen (let alone a companion) that eventually resulted in the tragedy of the Polar Journey. Indeed, what a price to pay!

Whereas the book _Endurance_ may have created a "Shackleton mania", it is books of such quality as Cherry-Garrard's book that will have a lasting, lofty place in the history of the exploration literature.

My favorite passage is also the concluding paragraph quoted by some other people, but here I cannot resist sharing with you another one in its entirety (and chuckling one more time), which is certainly a little far from the main subject of the book, but which shows that even in recounting a side episode like this one, Cherry-Garrard surpasses many writers in that he makes memorable, not only the scene, but the words that describe it:

"One day there had been a blizzard, and lying open to the view of all was a deserted nest, a pile of coveted stones. All the surrounding rookery made their way to and fro, each husband acquiring merit, for, after each journey, he gave his wife a stone. This was the plebeian way of doing things; but my friend who stood, ever so unconcerned, upon a rock knew a trick worth two of that: he and his wife who sat so cosily upon the other side.

"The victim was a third penguin. He was without a mate, but this was an opportunity to get one. With all the speed his little legs could compass he ran to and fro, taking stones from the deserted nest, laying them beneath a rock, and hurrying back for more. On that same rock was my friend. When the victim came up with his stone he had his back turned. But as soon as the stone was laid and the other gone for more, he jumped down, seized it with his beak, ran round, gave it to his wife and was back on the rock (with his back turned) before you could say Killer Whale. Every now and then he looked over his shoulder, to see where the next stone might be.

"I watched this for twenty minutes. All that time, and I do not know for how long before, that wretched bird was bringing stone after stone. And there were no stones there. Once he looked puzzled, looked up and swore at the back of my friend on his rock, but immediately he came back, and he never seemed to think he had better stop. It was getting cold and I went away: he was coming for another."