Reading history and reviews
Finished on 24th June 2012Lansing's book recounts Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated attempt to cross the Antartic in 1915, and the heroic journey that he and his men made to escape after ice crushed their ship (the eponymous Endurance) and left them stranded on an ice floe in the Weddell Sea. Written in the 1950s, the story of their incredible journey - first across the ice, then by boat to Elephant Island - and the terrible hardships they encountered, is recreated from diaries and first hand accounts, and is truly astonishing. It's a tale of great bravery and also of great luck, and is an absolutely compelling read.
The story of the other party on Shackleton's expedition is told in Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Tale of an Antarctic Tragedy.