The Worst Journey in the World

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley

ISBN 10: 1470891514 ISBN 13: 9781470891510

Publisher: Craig Black, 2013

Synopsis

[Read by Simon Vance]

This gripping story of courage and achievement is an account of Robert Falcon Scott's last fateful expedition to the Antarctic, as told by surviving expedition member Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Cherry-Garrard tells of the journey from England to South Africa and southward to the ice floes, where began the unforgettable polar journey across a forbidding and inhospitable region. On November 12, 1912, in arctic temperatures, Cherry-Garrard, in a search party, found the bodies of Scott and his companions, along with their poignant last notebook entries, some of them recorded in this work.

Among Cherry-Garrard's friends and admirers were John Galsworthy, H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, and Bernard Shaw. His background in the arts and humanities makes The Worst Journey in the World stand out as a literary accomplishment as well as a classic in the annals of exploration.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time that has ever been devised" wrote Apsley Cherry-Garrard in a deceptively jaunty introduction to this classic story of bravery and fortitude first published in 1922. The story he relates is of Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic. From its departure from England in 1910 to its arrival in New Zealand in 1913, it is one of the most famous and tragic in the annals of exploration. Driven by an obsession for scientific knowledge, these brave polar explorers embarked on a journey into the unknown, testing their endurance by pushing themselves to the ultimate physical and mental limits as they surveyed the striking and mammoth land that lay far to the south.
Cherry-Garrard was himself a member of the expedition that had two goals: to discover as much as was scientifically possible about the terrain and habitat of Antarctica, and to be the first to reach the South Pole. The party was plagued by bad luck, weather conditions of unanticipated ferocity, and the physical deterioration of the party on the last part of the journey. Confronted by the shattering knowledge that Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole a month before them, Scott's party then had to negotiate the last, heroic part of their journey, a doomed attempt which has entered modern mythology.
The Worst Journey in the World is the inside story of this most famous of journeys and is truly one of the best and most moving books of travel ever written. Join Scott's expedition as he and his team venture deep into the frozen unknown. This volume is the second in the continuing series of Explorers Club Classic books.

About the Author:

Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was born in England and educated at Oxford. At twenty-four he was one of the youngest members of Scott's British Antarctic Expedition. He served in the First World War until being invalidated out of the navy in 1915 and during his convalescence started to write The Worst Journey in the World. He also wrote introductory chapters to Wilson of the Antarctic (1933) and Life of Bowers (1938).

About this edition

• Publisher: Craig Black
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1470891514
• ISBN 13: 9781470891510
• Binding: Audio CD