Jack is the guest reviewer this week –
This is the story of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the south pole in 1912.
I started reading this and almost immediately thought I wouldn’t like it!
Fiennes is clearly an upper crust member of the British establishment with an inflated sense of his own importance. All through the book he compares himself to Scott and a goodly part of it is about his own travels to the south and north poles.
But despite all that he managed to suck me in!
Fiennes really did do good research and approaches the more contentious issues very fairly. He also goes outside of the central story to get different points of view. This was also where I had some questions, though. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, beat Scott by a month to the pole and is presented here as somewhat devious and a bit of a cheat. I see here Fiennes buying into the old story of the ‘above board’ British against those dastardly foreigners.
What is also well explained is the context of Scott’s doomed attempt – British exceptionalism, Government under-funding, class divisions, civilian/service divisions, limited meteorological knowledge etc. What also comes through clearly, though, is Scott’s abilities as a leader. He made difficult decisions, led by example and persuaded his team to incredible feats of endurance!
So my take away from this book is that Scott really was a doomed hero and Fiennes is a bit of a narcissist!
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 