“The Worst Journey in The World” tells the whole story and then some. It is widely praised as one of the best, most frank (and chilling!) books about polar exploration in the early 20th century.

In this epic memoir, Apsley Cherry-Garrard of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, tells about the expedition, about its fate – and about the disastrous planning, the extreme suffering and sheer bad luck that was also part of the story.

The title of the book – The Worst Journey in The World – would seem a fitting description for the Terra Nova-expedition. But it actually refers to a sub-quest to recover eggs of the emperor penguin for scientific study. Here, Cherry-Garrard participated on a journey across the Ross Ice Shelf in complete darkness and in temperatures below −40 °C. But the eggs were retrieved, and the small expedition returned – barely – alive.

Make a (hot!) cup of tea, get a warm blanket and download the entire book with plenty of maps and illustrations here:

The Worst Journey In The World (760 pages / 23 MB)