Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End

Since the discovery of the wreck of Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance on the bed of the Antarctic ocean, the world has been enthralled anew by one of the greatest stories of all time. Acclaimed South African writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey, himself a Shackleton aficionado, revisits this dramatic event, which managed to sweep the tide of anger and rancour off the timelines and front pages of the world. He asks how so many ordinary people, who don't know a nunatak from a barquentine, were so moved at the finding of a small wooden ship once sailed by a half-forgotten Irishman? In re-examining the story and its players, he presents new details and a new understanding of the courage and hardship of the Endurance voyage, and reminds us of how extraordinary humans can be. Not all is lost, and what has been lost can be regained: the ocean has given us something back. What's more, we are reminded that miracles still happen: human miracles, performed by flawed people in helpless situations.

Darrel Bristow-Bovey is a prize-winning screenwriter and travel writer and a newspaper and magazine columnist. He's the author of five books which have been translated into seven languages, including Spanish, Estonian and Portuguese. He was born in South Africa, studied under JM Coetzee and Andre Brink, and currently divides his time between Cape Town, the UK and a hillside on the Greek Peloponnese. His fascination with the Endurance expedition began as a small boy, when his father first told him that he had been south with Shackleton. He still believes him.