Books about polar exploration

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.

A gripping history of the agonies and feuds, as well as the joys, of the legendary 1911-2 British-Norwegian race to the South Pole

This is the story of a scientific expedition to the Arctic in 1855 and the women the explorers left behind. It portrays a Victorian society obsessed with mapping and classifying everything, where the emancipation of women and the evolution of species are the next great revolutions.

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 set sail for Antarctica, aiming to cross the continent overland. The ship became trapped, then crushed, by ice and, for five months, Shackleton and his men survived in one of the most savage regions on Earth. This is their story.

As the first world war broke out in Europe, Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole became trapped by ice. Their ship, the Endurance, was crushed and the men were forced to survive in and escape from one of the world's most hostile environment.

Offers an account of one of the most ambitious - and disastrous - Arctic expeditions ever mounted. This book tells the story about unlikely heroes and unexpected villains - humans reduced to their primal needs by the infinite power and mystery of nature.

The tragic story of Captain Scott and his British team who trekked across the snows of Antarctica, striving to be the first to reach the South Pole. The author offers a scientific perspective to understanding the men of the expedition, their staggering struggle, and the reasons for their deaths.

The men on board, Her Britannic Majesty's Ships Terror and Erebus had every expectation of triumph. They were part of Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition - and theirs were the first steam-driven vessels to go in search of the fabled North-West Passage. But the ships have now been trapped in the Arctic ice for nearly two years.

A great adventure story, suffused with the spirit of Edwardianism, and winner of the Nelson, Hurst & Marsh biography award

In 1912, Albanov set off to search for new Arctic hunting grounds. After getting stuck in the ice and drifting for a year-and-a-half they decided to search for safety. This is the diary of Albanov and his crew and their 90-day ordeal crossing the Arctic ice in search of land and safety.

The story of the expedition across Antarctica led by Ernest Shackleton, illustrated by the photographs taken by Frank Hurley. The text covers the crushing of their ship Endurance by ice, their two-year struggle to stay alive and their eventual rescue.

In the mid-19th century, John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, launched the most ambitious programme of exploration the world had ever seen. Between 1816 and 1845 his hand-picked teams of elite naval officers scoured the globe's empty spaces. This book tells his story.

The true story of John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage.