A classic study of the expeditions to the South Pole that asks why we are so fascinated with exploring vast, empty, and extreme landscapes.

'A truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination.' Jan Morris, The Times
'Shot through with crystalline brilliance.' Washington Post
'Fascinating.' Sunday Times

When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the national imagination. Everyone remembers the doomed Captain Oates's last words: 'I'm just going outside, and I may be some time.' Francis Spufford's celebrated and prize-winning history shows how Scott's death was the culmination of a national enchantment with vast empty spaces, the beauty of untrodden snow, and perilous journeys to the end of the earth.

Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Writers' Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year and the Banff Mountain Book Prize.