Shackleton

by Ranulph Fiennes

Overview

“When Ranulph Fiennes produces a book about Ernest Shackleton, it should get our attention. I found that the best way to read this book is to imagine that you are in a pub sharing a beer with Sir Ranulph while he regales you with his tale about Ernest Shackleton. Fiennes moves the narrative along at a good pace and his storytelling becomes particularly animated when he is describing the actual grind of slogging through the snow and ice.”—Lloyd Spencer Davis, The New York Times Book Review (front page review)

An enthralling new biography of Ernest Shackleton by the world's greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there.

In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice.

The disaster left Shackleton and his men alone at the frozen South Pole, fighting for their lives. Their survival and escape is the most famous adventure in history.

Shackleton is a captivating new account of the adventurer, his life, and his incredible leadership under the most extreme of circumstances. Written by polar adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who followed in Shackleton's footsteps, he brings his own unique insights to bear on these infamous expeditions. Shackleton is both re-appraisal and a valediction, separating Shackleton from the myth he has become.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639363025
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	12/13/2022
Pages:	452
Sales rank:	272,956
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton: The Biography, is the only man alive ever to have traveled around the Earth’s circumpolar surface. His record-breaking expeditions include travel by riverboat, hovercraft, man-haul sledge, skidoo, Land Rover, and skis. He is often described by media as "the world’s greatest living explorer.” When not on one of his adventures, he lives in Britain.

Editorial Reviews

"Think of Fiennes, rather, as an Edwardian raconteur with veiny cheeks and a plummy growl who pours you a dram and pulls you close to the fire...He concedes that Shackleton was bad at business, bad at planning, bad at domestic life, and all too adept at taking risks. He acknowledges that Shackleton never once 'reached his intended main goal.' But he endorses the conclusion of the polar explorer Sir Raymond Priestley: 'When you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton.'

Air Mail

Praise for Ranulph Fiennes:

From the Publisher

"Fiennes’ own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that these men went through.

The Sunday Times (London)

There can be few stories in the annals of exploration so firmly entrenched in the public imagination as Sir Ernest Shackleton’s. Highly readable and compelling. Fiennes is the only one of Shackleton’s biographers to have experienced firsthand anything like the extremes Shackleton and his men endured. He sparks it to life in a way no other biographer could. Brilliant

The Explorers Journal

Fiennes brings the promised perspective of one who has been there, illuminating Shackleton’s actions by comparing them with his own. Beginners to the Heroic Age will enjoy this volume, as will serious polar adventurers seeking advice. For all readers, it’s a tremendous story.

The Wall Street Journal - Sara Wheeler

"Full of awe-inspiring details of hardship, resolve and weather that defies belief, told by someone of unique authority. No one is more tailor-made to tell [this] story than Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Newsy

The world's greatest living explorer.

Guinness World Records

"Stirring. No one is better placed than Fiennes to understand or appreciate the enormity of this achievement.

The Daily Mail

"A valuable corrective. One by one, and with commendable attention to detail, Fiennes explodes the accumulated myths."

The Sunday Telegraph

10/25/2021

Explorer Fiennes (Cold) draws on his own experiences in Antarctica in this sympathetic if somewhat dry biography of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton (1874-1921). Fiennes contends that Shackleton's first two expeditions to Antarctica "helped pave the way for Amundsen and Scott to reach the South Pole," and recounts in detail the 1914-1917 Endurance expedition, when Shackleton's ship was crushed by ice and he saved his entire crew by sailing a lifeboat across 800 miles of "grey and desolate sea" and traversing South Georgia island to get help. Fiennes also defends Shackleton against accusations of being a poor planner, and notes that his own journey across the Antarctic continent in 1993 followed the route Shackleton intended to take on the Endurance expedition. Details of Shackleton's early life in Ireland and England reveal how he dreamed from a young age "of becoming a hero... feted far and wide," while discussions of the challenges he faced in raising funds and finding crew members showcase his fierce will and powers of persuasion. Though Fiennes's admiration shines through, frequent asides about his own expeditions are more distracting than insightful, and the prose doesn't quite capture the drama of polar exploration. Still, this is a thorough record of Shackleton's successes and failures. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2021-10-20
A world-renowned explorer and prolific writer turns his attention to Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), a giant of the heroic age of polar exploration, with entirely satisfying results.

Already a biographer of Robert Falcon Scott, it seemed inevitable that Fiennes would take on Shackleton, who dealt successfully with disaster—a unique trait among 19th- and early-20th-century British explorers. Born to an Anglo-Irish family, Shackleton yearned for adventure from childhood. After years as a merchant seaman, he pulled strings to join Scott’s 1901-1903 Discovery Expedition to Antarctica, where he, Scott, and another engaged in a brutal trek toward the South Pole that reached nearly 82 degrees south, a record, before they turned back. Evacuated because of debility, he returned to England before the others and became a national celebrity for his charisma and speaking skills as well as his accomplishments. Yearning to make his own mark, in 1909, he organized an expedition that, after unspeakable suffering, turned back about 100 miles from the South Pole. Fiennes emphasizes that this decision showed intelligence as well as courage because, starving and ill, everyone would certainly have died if they continued south. Fiennes excels in describing Shackleton’s apotheosis. Leading an expedition to cross Antarctica, in 1915, his ship became trapped in ice; nine months later, the ice crushed it. After months drifting on ice floes, he led his men to an isolated island and then piloted a small boat across 800 miles of stormy seas to a whaling station on South Georgia Island to organize a rescue. Having literally walked in Shackleton’s footsteps, Fiennes is uniquely qualified to describe his experiences, analyze his mistakes, and contradict other biographers. While scholars almost universally condemn Shackleton (and Scott) for eschewing skis, Fiennes explains that skis are a hindrance when dragging a heavy sledge. For those inclined to disagree, he points out that he came to this conclusion dragging his own sledge across Antarctica in 1993.

The definitive biography of a legendary adventurer.

Kirkus Reviews