Book description
Sir Ernest Shackleton could never have imagined his name being
closely associated with whisky, certainly not in the title of a book.
Rarely did he consume strong drink. On his expeditions, he tolerated a
'mild spree' at times of celebration. But that was all. Drinking to
excess appalled him. From an early age, growing up in a teetotal home,
he was wary of alcohol. How, then, must he have felt about signing an
order for twenty-five cases of whisky - 300 bottles - for his 1907-09
British Antarctic Expedition?
Shackleton
's Whisky follows the story of the Rare Old Highland
Whisky taken south on his Nimrod expedition. It celebrates the
extraordinary achievements of men exploring an extraordinary place. It
dips into the human-interest stories of polar life in the 'heroic era'
of Antarctic exploration. Shackleton once wrote of his interest in
documenting 'the little incidents that go to make up the sum of the
day's work, the humour and the weariness, the inside view of men on an
expedition'. Here is one such account, based largely on what he wrote
and said about the expedition and also on what the members of his
expedition wrote, for most participants kept a diary or journal.
Antarctic exploration and whisky, in their own way, are both steeped
in history, maturity, endurance, character, and technology. Both have
a worldwide following, millions of fans. Their pathways coincided on
the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09. With the recovery 100 years
later of three cases of Scotch from icy entombment under the hut at
Cape Royds and the subsequent return of three bottles to Scotland for
sampling, analysis and a near-magical replication, the relationship of
whisky and Antarctic exploration came sharply into focus, making a
unique odyssey to the end of the Earth and back.
Neville Peat spent two summers at Scott Base, New Zealand's Antarctic
station on Ross Island, in the late 1970s as a journalist and
photographer.
Shackleton's Whisky
is his fifth book on Antarctic themes. In 2007, he was awarded New
Zealand's largest literary prize, the Creative New Zealand Michael King
Writers' Fellowship for a book about the Tasman Sea (
The Tasman -
Biography of an Ocean
, 2010). His specialist areas are geography, biography, natural history
and the environment. He lives on Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, near royal
albatrosses, yellow-eyed penguins and New Zealand sea lions.
www.
nevillepeatsnewzealand. com
