A solid, workmanlike account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) which for a time pitted Fuchs and Hillary in a race to the pole. The author calls it “the greatest polar expedition ever forgotten” (p. 251). He alludes to men reading occasionally, but never with any helpful details of which books or how read. General tone at times seems “a pox on both your houses” re the stubbornness of both Fuchs and Hillary.
p. 142: quote from Gunn’s Land of the Lost Day: “Perhaps someone had been reading Voyage of the Discovery,” wrote an amused Gunn, “because the same rules applied, one had to appeal to the President of the Mess for permission to speak or tell a tale, no bets or use of reference books allowed etc.”
p. 172: map seems curiously inverted, with higher latitudes to the north.