Product Description

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 World 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, and it is a brilliant one. Sara Wheeler, who has travelled extensively in the Antarctic, has had unrestriced access to new material and the full co-operation of Cherry's family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100335 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

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

Sunday Telegraph
‘…a formidable accomplishment’

Guardian
‘Superb’

Customer Reviews

Cherry : A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Sara Wheeler's book is an exceptional biography of an exceptional human being, and quite the best piece of serious writing I've come across in years. Cherry's epitaph for Oates as "a very gallant gentleman" could well have been his own.

Far from uncritical of her man, Wheeler balances a deep understanding of what led him to Antarctica, with a sympathetic and thoughtful analysis of his desperately self-destructive later years. Although much of the story springs from Cherry's remarkable relationships with his sledging partners, particularly Bowers and Wilson, I was glad that Wheeler did not fall into the trap of quoting wholesale from "The Worst Journey" (itself surely among the finest travel books ever written, though it was only through Wheeler that I learned of the contribution made by GBS). Sections of the biography are inevitably moving : the loss of the tent at Crozier, the discovery of Scott's party, Cherry's incomplete relationship with his young wife. His clinical depression seems well-handled, and it is impossible not to sympathise with his plight, even if, or perhaps because, it was to such a large extent self-inflicted.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard failed no-one but himself. Sara Wheeler has not let him down.

Cherry
I came across this book in a local secondhand bookshop just recently and had bought it on spec, I was not even familiar with the characters involved just looking for something different.
The detail which Sara Wheeler prescribes is quite frightening, the hardship of the sleding journeys (manhauling) let alone extreme cold is almost beyond belief. This truely must be an insight into what the lure and appeal of what early exploration must have been like and why people were driven to push themselves to such breathtaking boundaries. I did not find the book an easy or engulfing read, (excluding the early antarctic section) but the overwhleming desire to see it through to it's final resolutions make it a worthwhile if not thought provoking read.

Cherry: A life of Aplsley Cherry-Garrard
A gripping story of a very interesting life. Because of her own knowledge of the Antarctis, the author has managed to combine biography with adventure story. Through the gripping narrative, Apsley becomes a real person and his plight comes to life on every page. A book I read in small installments to be able to enjoy it for a long time.