Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis: review

By Ed O'Loughlin

Gavin Francis's 'Empire Antarctica' is a gripping account of a modern polar winter

The polar environment may be as harsh as ever, but the real challenge facing the 14 men and women of Halley’s winter crew is to cope with each other and with themselves. Cliques, feuds, mutinies are not uncommon on polar bases. Some people go mad.

Francis’s account of the rituals, rules, frustrations and pleasures of this closed, quasi-monastic world is one of the many triumphs of this hugely enjoyable book. His efforts to adjust to – and then from – the simultaneous freedom and confinement of a world without money, strangers, bosses or family form the spine of a gripping inward exploration.