Apsley Cherry-Garrard (1886-1959) was one of the youngest members of Captain Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic which he joined to collect the eggs of the Emperor penguin. After the expedition, Cherry-Garrard served in the First World War and was invalided home. With the zealous encouragement of his neighbour, George Bernard Shaw, Cherry-Garrard wrote The Worst Journey in the World (1922) in an attempt to overcome the horror of the journey. As the years unravelled he faced a terrible struggle against depression, breakdown and despair, haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Scott and his companions.
'The Worst Journey in the World is to travel what War and Peace is to the novel... a masterpiece' New York Review of Books The best polar book there is Observer Probably the best adventure yarn ever published Independent Remains the masterpiece of heroic travel The Times The finest book ever written about Antarctic exploration as well as a great literary classic -- Peter Matthiessen