Taylor was born in England but went to Australia at age 12, where he was a student of Edgeworth David, before studying in Cambridge 1907-09 (Emmanuel College). This biography presents him as a brilliant scientist but irascible, vain glorious, and sometimes mean-spirited. A geologist turned geographer he became an ardent geographic determinist, seeing both nature and man determined by their natural environment. He went on the Terra Nova expedition with Scott, and wrote about it in his With Scott: the Silver Lining, the silver lining being the scientific accomplishments of the expedition.
p. 51: his favorite Dickens novel was Martin Chuzzlewit which he took on the T.N. expedition and is said to have read it nine times. The violent storm at the beginning of the journey destroyed many of his books, his camera damaged, and his clothes soiled.
p. 62 has a posed Ponting photograph of Debenham, Priestley and Taylor, the latter two writing their diaries.