Erebus: The Story of a Ship

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I absolutely loved it: I had to read it at one sitting . . . Fascinating." (Lorraine Kelly ITV Lorraine) Vividly recounting the experiences of the men who first set foot on Antarctica’s Victoria Land, and those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic ice, beyond the reach of desperate rescue missions, Erebus is a wonderfully evocative account of a truly extraordinary adventure, brought to life by a master explorer and storyteller.

Magisterial . . . A natural storyteller, [Palin] captures beautifully the sense of awe experienced by Ross and his men as they encountered the wonders and terrors of Antarctica . . . He brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s." ( The Times) Thoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life." ( Sunday Times) Michael Palin is well known as a raconteur, comedian on TV and in film (e.g. Monty Python, Ripping Yarns, A Fish Called Wanda), and the presenter of well-received TV documentaries (e.g. Pole to Pole, Sahara, Himalaya). His books include lively accounts of his journeys, novels and diaries. He is popularly regarded with affection and as an all-round ‘good egg’ in old British public school parlance, a description that suits him very well. Magisterial . . . Brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s.’– The Times

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I absolutely loved it: I had to read it at one sitting . . . Fascinating.’– Lorraine Kelly, ITV Lorraine Vividly recounting the experiences of the men who first set foot on Antarctica’s Victoria Land, and those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic ice, beyond the reach of desperate rescue missions, Erebus is a wonderfully evocative account of a truly extraordinary adventure, brought to life by an avid explorer and storyteller. Palin’s] narrative is driven by a deep sympathy for explorers and adventurers, while also being illuminated by flashes of gentle wit . . . It’s a fascinating story that he brings full-bloodedly to life, stripping away the barnacles of the past to reveal the hidden history of a ship." (Robert Douglas-Fairhurst Guardian) So far, one hopes sufficient has been written to persuade readers of this journal that their time would not be wasted by reading this book, no matter how familiar they were with the exploration history of the polar regions. Palin is an attractive writer, and the book is certainly difficult to put down. He includes various reminiscences of his own trips to the regions in question and, although this reviewer normally finds such intrusions irritating, these constitute a small proportion of the whole and can be easily overlooked. The ship was filled with fascinating people: the dashing and popular James Clark Ross, who charted much of the ‘Great Southern Barrier’; the troubled John Franklin, whose chequered career culminated in the Erebus's final, disastrous expedition; and the eager Joseph Dalton Hooker, a brilliant naturalist – when he wasn't shooting the local wildlife dead.

Thoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life.’– Sunday Times This is an incredible book. I couldn’t put it down. The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we’ve all been waiting for.’– Nicholas Crane Thoroughly absorbs the reader… Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the
story of a ship vividly to life.’– Sunday Times The ship was filled with fascinating people: the dashing and popular James Clark Ross, who charted much of the ‘Great Southern Barrier’; the troubled John Franklin, whose chequered career culminated in the Erebus’s final, disastrous expedition; and the eager Joseph Dalton Hooker, a brilliant naturalist – when he wasn’t shooting the local wildlife dead.

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For Palin, this volume is a venture into what may be regarded as ‘serious’ non-fiction and probably merits detailed attention on these grounds alone. But this is by no means a trivial book, combining as it does much solid information with a lightness of touch characteristic of his previous works. It is a history of H.M.S. Erebus, the famous ‘bomb’ vessel that was prominent in two major polar explorations. The first of these was under the command of James Clark Ross in an expedition that lasted from 1839 to 1843; it succeeded in penetrating the sea that was named after Ross and accomplished its primary mission, which was to conduct a series of magnetic observations in the southern hemisphere. For its second, and much better known, expedition, it was the vessel in which Sir John Franklin attempted to transit the northwest passage, starting in 1845, and which led to the loss of all on board. Written] with a wry enthusiasm, bolstered by his own experiences as an eminent explorer and film-maker . . . His moving account of the discovery of abandoned items, taken on board as comforts of home by the officers – silver cutlery with their initials indented, scattered on a frozen shore – affected me the most." (Colin Greenwood, Radiohead bassist Spectator) With this irresistible and often harrowing account, Michael Palin makes a convincing case that one heroic little ship embodied the golden ago of polar exploration better than any other: HMS Erebus." (John Geiger, co-author of Frozen in Time) HMS Erebus was one of the great exploring ships, a veteran of groundbreaking expeditions to the ends of the Earth.