Book description
In late 1911, the final year of the Edwardian age, a British naval
captain and a Norwegian conqueror of the North-West Passage embarked on
the most gruelling race ever run. Their aim was not only to lead the
first expedition to the South Pole, but also to live to tell the tale.
Six months later, Robert Falcon Scott and four of his party were dead,
while Roald Amundsens victory had been wired around the world. A century
on, the debate still rages. Was Scott unfortunate or incompetent? Was
Amundsen a genius or lucky? In a unique television experiment, two teams
led by the Norwegian explorer Rune Gjeldnes and the television
anthropologist Bruce Parry, star of the BBC2 series Tribe, set out to
recreate the famous race. Wearing the same type of clothing as their
predecessors, surviving on the same diet, using the same equipment and
travelling over the same distance, they seek to answer some of the
burning questions. Blizzard is a dramatic chronicle of both the original
epic, and its reconstruction. Jasper Reess narrative skilfully
intertwines past and present as he brings to life an extraordinary cast
of characters. They may be separated from their predecessors by nearly a
hundred years, but the modern race teams soon discover that, in polar
travel, nothing changes. Among the hardships they face are
uncontrollable dogs, inedible food, invisible crevasses, unimaginable
cold, all in an unending prairie of snow. Incorporating the gripping
diaries of Parry and Gjeldnes, Blizzard paints an astonishing picture of
comradeship in the face of physical danger and psychological torment in
the most life-threatening habitat on earth. Jasper Rees is a freelance
journalist. He has written on the arts, literature, culture and sport
for, among others, the
Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Times,
the Independent, GQ
and Vogue.
He is the author of Wenger: The Making of a Legend
and the forthcoming musical memoir I Found My Horn.
He lives in London.
