Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence & Emperor Penguins - Softcover

Francis, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1619023407 ISBN 13: 9781619023406

Publisher: Counterpoint LLC, 2014

Synopsis

Gavin Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the basecamp doctor at Halley, a profoundly isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica. So remote, it is said to be easier to evacuate a casualty from the International Space Station than it is to bring someone out of Halley in winter. Antarctica offered a year of unparalleled silence and solitude, with few distractions and very little human history, but also a rare opportunity. Throughout the year -- from a summer of perpetual sunshine to months of winter darkness -- Gavin Francis explores the world of great beauty conjured from the simplest of elements, the hardship of living at 50 c below zero and the unexpected comfort that this penguin community brings, for this is the story of one man and his fascination with the world's loneliest continent, as well as the emperor penguins who weather the winter with him. Combining an evocative narrative with a sublime sensitivity to the natural world, this is travel writing at its very best.

About this title

Review:

"A finely written account of an extreme experience of the Antarctic, worthy to stand beside some of the great travel narratives in the English language." (RSL Ondaatje Prize Judges)

"Empire Antarctica is the embodiment of everything I admire in travel writing -- a great journey, intense isolation, wide reading, vivid writing, scientific research, and something in the nature of an old-fashioned ordeal. That Gavin Francis is a medical doctor, with an important role to play in the darkness and cold at the ends of the earth, is a bonus. I loved this book." (Paul Theroux)

"One of the best travel titles I have read in a long time. Thoughtful, lyrical, extremely well written, it's a triumph." (Giles Foden Conde Nast Traveller)

"A beautiful, profound and highly readable account of a remarkable personal adventure. Francis's pacing is deft, his prose vivid, his research worn lightly. This is probably as close as most of us will ever get to experiencing a modern polar winter. Empire Antarctica is surely destined to become a standard, not so much of travel as of staying very still." (Ed O'Loughlin Daily Telegraph)

"Francis' best writing (and it is excellent)... is Robert Macfarlane on ice. This writing achieves the 'quilted quality' of silence, and through it we are brought to a new landscape of words." (Katherine MacInnes Literary Review)

Book Description:

* WINNER OF SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2013 *

*Shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Prize*

* Shortlisted for the 2013 RSL Ondaatje Prize *

* Shortlisted for Banff Adventure Travel Prize *

* Shortlisted for Saltire Book of the Year Award *

The story of one man and his fascination with the world's loneliest continent, as well as the emperor penguins who weather the winter with him. Combining an evocative narrative with a sublime sensitivity to the natural world, this is travel writing at its very best.

About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1619023407
• ISBN 13: 9781619023406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282