Description
Antarctica: Deadly Allure is a powerful and deeply personal account of exploration, tragedy and remembrance on the world's most remote continent.Drawing on his own experiences as a member of the British Antarctic Survey, Roderick Rhys Jones takes readers into the extraordinary era of Antarctic exploration that followed the great expeditions of Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen. In the decades after 1944, small teams of scientists and explorers lived for months in isolated bases buried beneath the snow, travelling vast distances by dog sledge and tractor across an almost unmapped continent.At the heart of the book is a dramatic first-hand story. In 1965, while camped on the Antarctic ice, Rhys Jones heard an SOS message reporting the deaths of three colleagues in a devastating crevasse accident. The event left a lasting mark, eventually inspiring a remarkable campaign to honour all those who lost their lives in the pursuit of Antarctic science and exploration.Blending gripping personal memoir, polar history and a moving story of remembrance, the book recounts the creation of the British Antarctic Monument Trust and the successful effort to establish permanent memorials in St Paul's Cathedral, Cambridge and the Falkland Islands.Richly illustrated with unforgettable experiences from Antarctica's last great age of exploration, Antarctica: Deadly Allure is both a tribute to courage and sacrifice and a fascinating insight into life on the frozen continent before the age of modern communications and technology.