Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9298 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Synopsis
One of the youngest members of Scott's team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. This is his account of an expedition that had gone disastrously wrong.

About the Author
Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic which he joined to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. After the expedition, Cherry-Garrard served in the First World War and was invalided home. With the zealous encouragement of his neighbour, George Bernard Shaw, Cherry-Garrard wrote The Worst Journey in the World (1922) in an attempt to overcome the horror of the journey. 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.

Customer Reviews

A Desert Islands Discs book
There are few books that have left so lasting impression upon me. This book deserves all the superlatives too casually granted other, lesser books. This man, so young, so lacking in cynicism, so loyal and idealistic will haunt your memory as surely as he was ever-lastingly haunted by the Antarctic and the loss of his companions. His writing is superlative, a true craftsman, he will lead you into this world and leave the impression of it upon you forever. I return to this book with reverence.

Compelling story of quiet determination
Cherry-Garrard's book is indeed a treasure. The sensitive portraits that he paints of his fellow explorers, the descriptions of the landscape and conditions and his account of his own travels and exertions put you right there in it with them. Within the measured and maybe repressed framework of his age he writes openly and with a sustained ring of truth, i.e. that this was what he really felt at the time. He indeed paints Scott in a rosy light, but who can blame him after spending so long with Scott in such a closed environment? Scott had many good qualities but above all was a product of his time, of the Royal Navy and Edwardian Britain. With the benefit of hindsight, the expedition could have been better prepared, trained and equipped, but I'm not sure that it could have been better served by the men who were part of it. I recommend Cherry-Garrard's book to anyone interested to read of human determination and companionship in the face of extreme hardship.

Excellent book about "The Worst Journey In The World"
A fantastic gripping harrowing account of what the author rightly calls The Worst Journey iin the World. he should know he was there!
The youngest member of Scott's team who later formed the rescue party that eventually found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had made the final effort to reach the Pole.
Ignore the reviewer who casts against this edition. It was obviously a poor copy of the book that made the pages fall out! I have read this book and I have 2 friends who have their own copies and the pages remain firm.
Please, do not be put off from buying what is a masterpiece of work.