Antarctic Journeys
New Holland, 2019
ISBN 9781869664992
Where is Antarctica? Who was the first to discover it? What was the Race to the South Pole? Why did it take so long for women to be allowed to go to Antarctica? How do you get there, and how is it different from the rest of the world? How cold is it? What is it like spending the winter there? What kind of animals do you see?
This book will tell you all these things and more, and it’s crammed full of fascinating pictures as well.
Excerpt
“Antarctica is like no other continent. People suspected it was there for centuries, but It was one of the last places in the world to be discovered. It has no indigenous inhabitants or language. Its early history is a saga of exploration and endurance in the face of raging storms, freezing temperatures, blizzards and ferocious winds, and it is told by and about men. No women stepped onto the continent for decades after the first sightings and landings.
Nobody lives there permanently. Everyone arrives from somewhere else and then leaves again. Antarctic animals carry out their own journeys and migrations. Even the ice moves across the landscape from the high mountains towards the sea.
This book tells the stories of Antarctic journeys, big and small, animal and human, scientific and practical, journeys of art and memory, journeys through the landscape and into the past.” (Introduction to Antarctic Journeys)
The story behind the book
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Scott Base and McMurdo Sound with Antarctica New Zealand. You can read the blog of my trip here.
Going to Antarctica was an amazing experience and I have thought about it almost every day since then. It is beautiful and remote and fascinating and cold and scary and breathtaking, often all at once.
I wanted to share some of the fascinating things I have found out about Antarctica – the history, the science, the animals, the people. This book is the result!
Below is the hut for Captain Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, with photos of the kitchen and some of the bunks. Inside, it has a most eerie feeling, as if the men from that expedition might walk back inside at any moment.
Interviews
In conversation about Antarctica with James Norcliffe on the Flash Frontier website
Reviews
Thanks to Kids Books NZ for this review.
Antarctica is just so intriguing and reading Antarctic Journeys…was a vicarious adventure… read more here.
The Sapling
Philippa Werry spent a summer on the ice meeting the people who work there, doing what they do and seeing all the historical huts and sites that make up Antarctica history. A fascinating story for everyone… read more here.
Bobs Books Blog
Philippa Werry (who has at least 15 books in print) was certainly an excellent person to send to Antarctica. She has the historian’s eye and the novelist’s eye. She’s also good with a camera… read more here.
Agnew Reading
