Overview

A brilliant biography of the youngest member of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic. Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic. Cherry undertook an epic journey in the Antarctic winter to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. The temperature fell to seventy below, it was dark all the time, his teeth shattered in the cold and the tent blew away. 'But we kept our tempers,' Cherry wrote, 'even with God.' After serving in the First War Cherry was invalided home, and with the zealous encouragement of his neighbour Bernard Shaw he wrote a masterpiece. In The Worst Journey in the World Cherry transformed tragedy and grief into something fine. But as the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions. This is the first biography of Cherry. Sara Wheeler, who has travelled extensively in the Antarctic, has had unrestricted access to new material and the full co-operation of Cherry's family.

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9780099437536

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With this wonderful biography Sara Wheeler has now vaulted into the front rank of modern British writers...this volume is so much more than a story of one remarkable man. It is among other things an exploration of the mind, a tour through the notions of national identity and pride, and a celebration of the tensile strength of the human spirit -- Simon Winchester Beautifully written... Wheeler's vocabulary to evoke this luminous and cruel continent appears limitless * New York Times * Brilliantly succeeds not only in brining this modest man disarmingly to life but also in recreating the England of his time and social setting...a formidable accomplishments * Sunday Telegraph * Beautiful...written with unfailing eloquence and grace, and great admiration for its subject * Independent * Accomplishes what only the best biographies can * The Times *

The story of Apsley Cherry-Garrard is a poignant one. Born an affable minor aristocrat in the English Home Counties, he escaped from the paralysing strictures of Edwardian life into the vast, awe-inspiring wastes of the Antarctic, where as a young man he discovered a clarity and a purpose that he never found again. His celebrated travel classic The Worst Journey in the World told the story of Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. Cherry-Garrard had been one of the party, though not one of those selected for the final, tragic push. Despite the success of his written account, his failure to find and rescue Scott's frozen and demoralized team on its return journey had haunted him all his life, leading to paralysing bouts of depression. But there was more than that behind his ultimate nervous collapse. As Sara Wheeler - herself a polar explorer - puts it, 'in the Antarctic he had lived so close to what he called the bedrock of existence that the complicated, crowded and corrupted world he occupied at home seemed to him now to be worth nothing at all.' Cherry's slow decline from bright and fiery youth into confused and alienated old man is a process that many will recognise as a hazard of living too intensely, too young - as much a danger for prematurely retired sportsmen and rock stars as it is to explorers and war heroes, and a territory which David Hare memorably explored in his stage play Plenty. 'The world spun away from Cherry', says Wheeler, and in a sense this is the tragedy not only of one man but of all disappointment and the death of dreams. (Kirkus UK)

'Her biography brilliantly succeeds...a formidable accomplishment' Sunday Telegraph

Accomplishes what only the best biographies can The Times Beautiful...written with unfailing eloquence and grace, and great admiration for its subject Independent Brilliantly succeeds not only in brining this modest man disarmingly to life but also in recreating the England of his time and social setting...a formidable accomplishments Sunday Telegraph Beautifully written... Wheeler's vocabulary to evoke this luminous and cruel continent appears limitless New York Times With this wonderful biography Sara Wheeler has now vaulted into the front rank of modern British writers...this volume is so much more than a story of one remarkable man. It is among other things an exploration of the mind, a tour through the notions of national identity and pride, and a celebration of the tensile strength of the human spirit -- Simon Winchester

Author Information

Sara Wheeler's books include the international bestseller Terra Incognita- Travels in Antarctica, of which the Telegraph reviewer wrote, 'I do not think there will ever be a better book on the Antarctic.' The Magnetic North- Notes from the Arctic Circle, was chosen as Book of the Year by Will Self, Michael Palin, A. N. Wilson and others. She has published two biographies of travellers- Cherry- A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and Too Close to the Sun- The Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton, and was immensely relieved to write about women at last in O My America!. She lives in London.

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