Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17937 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

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

Worst Journey in the World
This moving book of human courage, companionship and self sacrifice is the greatest I have ever read. The haunted, emotive words of the youngest man of the expedition, Cherry Garrard, leap across the years, making it both tragic and gripping, heroic and uplifting, and with final diary enteries of his dying comrades included, heart rendering. A true story of not only the toughest expediton to the South Pole but an account full of human warmth for the men who undertook the journey. At its conclusion one is left by the sense of deep admiration for those who reached beyond their normal selves, against overwhelming odds to achieve the impossible, not for riches, nor fame, but for the sake of universal human knowledge and achievement. My favourite book of all.

Best travel book ever - and then some.
There is a recurrent weakness among travel books, which is this: they all too often give the impression that the author set out on his travels for no better reason than to write about them. This is - emphatically - not one of those books. Polar explorers, these days, are often dismissed as self-glorifying adventures. There is a case for this as far as, say, Shackleton, is concerned, for all his heroic achievements once he was in a tight spot. Scott, on the other hand, merely used the quest for the pole as a selling point for an expedition of scientific research, a reason he felt was very worthwhile indeed. Cherry makes it clear in this book that everyone in the expedition - himself included - was prepared to endure hardships that are almost beyond the imagination of most of us for the sake of adding to mankind's store of knowledge - and in doing so inspires our awed respect and admiration. What they went through in merely reaching the Antarctic continent in the first place is enough to chill the blood. Also, Scott himself is too often dismissed as an incompetent leader who got himself and his men killed - but Cherry redresses that view, and surely no-one is better qualified to make that assessment.
It's unfortunate that the legacy of this expedition, in the public mind, is that of a botched attempt to secure a scrap of glory for the British Empire. If you want to know better, this is the book to read. I may buy another copy just so that I can read it again for the first time.

Genuine 5 star heroes
In an age of cynicism and the popular sport of debunking of old heroes, this book makes a refreshing read. It was written in a more innocent age and this is certainly a strenth of the book together with the honest integrity of the author Cherry Apsley-Gerrard. Here is a man well qualified to write of Scott's last expedition as he was there. Not only well qualified but a fine writer in his own right as anyone reading the book will find.

Through the authors eyes we get to know the persons involved in a more intimate way. Scott, highly strung and full of nervous energy but a true leader of men. The author does not shirk in describing him. Wilson, the gentle man of science who is popular with everyone. The indefatigable Bowers willing to take on any task with a cheerful face. The taciturn Oates, who people only seem to remember for his heroic gesture, turns out to be a gifted orator illuminating many a long polar night with his unsuspected gift.

In this age we should be inspired by their bravery for the advances of science,their comradeship and their ability to take on impossible tasks without complaint. We should admire the resolute way they refused to leave any man behind, unlike some modern day mountaineers who choose to ignore the dying, ensnared in that temporary insanity known as summit fever. These men lived like true English gentlemen and died like true English gentlemen. The grain ran deep. In an age when many an unworthy is held up as a hero, here we have examples to all of what this word truly means.