Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard

The first authorized biography of the antarctic explorer who gave us the greatest classic of polar literature In February 1912, Apsley Cherry-Garrard drove a team of dogs 150 miles to a desolate outpost on Antarctica's rough ice shelf to meet Robert Falcon Scott and his men, who were expected to return victor-ious any day from their epic race to the South Pole. Winter was closing in, and Cherry was handicapped by brutal temperatures and diminishing light. Less than two weeks later, three dying men pitched their tent for the last time just twelve miles to the south. One was Captain Scott, the leader of the expedition. The other two, Birdie Bowers and Bill Wilson, were the closest friends Cherry had ever had. Ten months later, once the polar winter had released them from captivity, Cherry and his search party found the tent, piled with snow and pinned to the ice by his friends' corpses. It was a tragedy that would rever-berate around the world and inspire Cherry to write his masterpiece," The Worst Journey in the World," which recently topped "National Geographic"'s list of the 100 greatest adventure books of all time. Cherry discovered in his writing a means to work out his grief and anger, but in life these doubts and fears proved far harder to quell. As the years progressed, he struggled against depression, breakdown, and despair, and was haunted by the possibility that he alone had had the opportunity to save Scott and his friends. Sara Wheeler's Cherry is the first biography of this soul-searching explorer, written with unrestricted access to his papers and the full cooperation of his widow--who has refused all requests until now. Wheeler's biography brings to lifethis great hero of Antarctic exploration and gives us a glimpse of the terrible human cost of his adventures.

Review :
"With this wonderful biography, Sara Wheeler has now vaulted into the front rank of modern British writers. Just as Cherry's own famous book was so much more than a tale of Antarctic exploration, so this volume is much, much more than a story of one remarkable man. It is, among other things, an exploration of the mind, a tour through the notions of national identity and pride, and a celebration of the tensile strength of the human spirit." --Simon Winchester "Apsley Cherry-Garrard was a complicated man, and the portrait of him that emerges from these pages is utterly fascinating. Through the lens of his angst-filled life, Sara Wheeler has given us an important new understanding of Scott's doomed trudge to the South Pole--the most notorious calamity in the annals of twentieth-century exploration. Cherry is a wonderful book." --Jon Krakauer "This is a supple, chewy book, juggling many features. Vulnerability, ambition, foolishness. It's nuanced, bold, and three-dimensional. Ice-worthy. I pored over and argued with it, and when I finished, felt replete." --Edward Hoagland "At last, in Sara Wheeler's compelling biography, the author of the finest polar narrative ever written emerges from the shadow of his masterpiece. Cherry casts a fascinating new light on Scott's last expedition, the bravest and most tragic journey in the annals of Antarctica." --David Roberts "Wheeler's incisive skill in describing the majesty and misery of polar exploration reawakened the tingling of frostbite in my fingers as I turned the pages. This is the closest an armchair explorer can get to experiencing the South Pole in safety." --Richard Parry "Wheeler accomplishes what onlythe best biographies can. Drawing on her own experience in the Antarctic, she is able to satisfy the reader's curiosity of how it must have felt to be on that doomed expedition." --The Times "Brilliant...written with unfailing eloquence and grace, and great admiration for its subject." --The Independent "Passionate and informative...Cherry should be read on many counts." --Beryl Bainbridge, Daily Mail