Empire Antarctica - (Canons) by Gavin Francis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Gavin Francis spent fourteen months in one of the remotest places in the world: Halley, a research station in Antarctica. Storm-locked and frozen, it is said to be easier to evacuate a casualty from the International Space Station than it is to bring someone out of Halley in winter.

In the icy emptiness of Antarctica, where one misstep outdoors can mean death but the confined corridors of Halley can drive you mad, Gavin challenges himself to thrive at the ends of the earth. In the penguin colonies, a species utterly adapted to the harsh environment, he finds community, inspiration and joy.

Review Quotes

"Empire Antarctica has a penetrating beauty about it, at once haunting and inspiring. With its cool, poetic prose and powerful, resonant imagery, it deserves to become a classic"--JASON WEBSTER

"Empire Antarctica is the embodiment of everything I admire in travel writing - a great journey, intense isolation, wide reading, vivid writing, scientific research, and something in the nature of an old-fashioned ordeal. That Gavin Francis is a medical doctor, with an important role to play in the darkness and cold at the ends of the earth, is a bonus. I loved this book"--PAUL THEROUX

"A beautiful hymn to limitless solitude . . . His bracing year spent among emperor penguins presents an ordeal that is also a joy. And it's beautifully written on every page"--TOM ADAIR

"A beautiful, profound and highly readable account of a remarkable personal adventure. Francis's pacing is deft, his prose vivid, his research worn lightly. This is probably as close as most of us will ever get to experiencing a modern polar winter. Empire Antarctica is surely destined to become a standard, not so much of travel as of staying very still"-- "Daily Telegraph"

"A book full of wonder"-- "Sunday Times"

"A finely written account of an extreme experience of the Antarctic, worthy to stand beside some of the great travel narratives in the English language"--RSL Ondaatje Prize Judges

"A literate, stylish memoir of a personal adventure rich in history, geography and science"-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"A valuable addition to polar literature, vividly describing the brutal, but beautiful, realities of undergoing an Antarctic winter"--SIR RANULPH FIENNES

"An awe-inspiring memoir of a modern-day pioneer who writes with a poetic style and descriptive flourish that is part education, part enthrallment, and wholly entertaining"-- "The Daily Record"

"An extraordinary book - lyrical, precise, intoxicating and with a remarkable spiritual depth. It can certainly stand beside the classics of polar literature"--A.L. KENNEDY

"An intense and lyrical portrait of the slowly changing polar seasons . . . shines with a clarity and lyricism descended from Thoreau"-- "Times Literary Supplement"

"Beautiful, profound and highly readable . . . Francis's account of the rituals, rules, frustrations and pleasures of this closed, quasi-monastic world is one of the many triumphs of this hugely enjoyable book. Empire Antarctica is surely destined to become a standard, not so much of travel but of staying very still"-- "Sunday Telegraph"

"Beautifully descriptive of the natural world and the night sky in winter, Francis lets the reader experience the hardships and wonder of life inside and outside the station"-- "Library Journal of America"

"Francis' best writing (and it is excellent) . . . is Robert Macfarlane on ice. This writing achieves the 'quilted quality' of silence, and through it we are brought to a new landscape of words"-- "Literary Review"

"Francis's impressive reference points spread further, though - through philosophy, literature and science - and he writes beautifully about the strange, other-worldly allure of this habitat of ice and snow. Francis finds in Antarctica's sublime landscapes and months of darkness a tabula rasa on which to reconsider his place in the world and makes this brutally inhospitable place seem utterly enchanting"-- "Metro"

"He perceives the wilderness of snow and ice in colour and experiences it as continuous sights, sounds and sensations, writing as vividly and as fiercely in darkness at noon or in sunlight at midnight"-- "The Times"

"In this engrossing account of a doctor's 14 months at Halley, a British research station on the coast of Antarctica, what truly stands out is the book's lyrical prose"-- "Publishers Weekly"

"It is over 100 years since Ernest Shackleton published The Heart of the Antarctic, but the white continent's mystery endures, and Francis's lyrical and enjoyable account of 14 months living at the remote British Halley research station goes some way to explaining why"--TOM ROBBINS

"Moving, mesmerizing, and wonderful"-- "The Economist"

"One of the best travel titles I have read in a long time. Thoughtful, lyrical, extremely well written, it's a triumph"-- "Conde Nast Traveller"

"One of those rare books that leaves you with an almost breathless sense of the wonders of the planet. Beautiful, erudite and informative, it speaks joyously of the indomitability of Man and the natural world alike"--ESTHER WOOLFSON

"Out of his spell in the white kingdom he has fashioned a book full of wonder. Brilliantly imagined, superbly brought to life, it is a worthy companion to Francis's earlier journey in the Arctic and to Sara Wheeler's Terra Incognita"-- "Sunday Times (Travel Book of the Month - Nov 2012)"

"Part travelogue, part memoir, part natural history book, it's a fascinating, lyrical account of one of the strangest places on earth and its majestic inhabitants"-- "Esquire Magazine"

"This is the sort of book that gives obsession a very good name. Here, in a cold, silent place you realise that obsession is another name for love. And love leads to extraordinary and beautiful writing . . . this is a wonderful book"--SARA MAITLAND

About the Author

Gavin Francis is an award-winning writer and GP. He is the author of ten non-fiction books, most recently The Bridge Between Worlds: A Brief History of Connection. His books include Island Dreams, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2020; Adventures in Human Being, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the Saltire Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award; and Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence, which was a Sunday Times bestseller. He has written for the Guardian, The Times, the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. His work has been translated into nineteen languages, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.