Adventures in High Latitudes

by David Barrie
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5 books
I’ve always been drawn to remote, harsh and thinly populated places. Though I’ve only once visited the Arctic and I’ve yet to see Antarctica, I’m fascinated by the far north and south. Here is my selection of books that bring the Artic and the Antarctic to life. Some are straightforward tales of survival against the elements. Others raise profound questions about our relationship with the natural world or explore the lives of the indigenous peoples who live in high latitudes. They are all great reads!
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A Woman in the Polar Night

Christiane Ritter, 2010
Defying convention, a young German artist travelled to the northernmost tip of Svalbard in 1934 to join her husband, a professional hunter. Christiane Ritter spent the whole Arctic winter in a tiny hut, sometimes entirely alone for weeks on end. Her vivid account of this extraordinary adventure is beautifully observed and offers fascinating insights into the psychological effects of her prolonged isolation during months of complete darkness. This is a classic of Arctic literature and it has rightly earned Ritter a place in the pantheon of feminist champions.

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez, 2013
A fascinating amalgam of history, mythology, geography, zoology, botany, geology, oceanography and anthropology - and a lot more besides - Arctic Dreams is the product of years of travel and research. There are marvellous passages of nature-writing as Lopez seeks to explain why and how the Arctic exerts such a powerful hold on the imagination. This is perhaps the best introduction to the world of the Arctic, its wildlife and the people who live there.

The Other Side of Eden

Hunters, Farmers, and the Shaping of the World
Hugh Brody, 2002
Hugh Brody is a British anthropologist who spent many years living among the indigenous peoples of North America, helping them to defend their lands and their traditional ways of life. This beautifully-written, deeply-informed and very moving book gives the reader a vivid insight into the lives of the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic (as well as other indigenous peoples) and frankly discusses the many threats they face. Brody’s aim is to explore the profound differences between the worlds of the last surviving hunter-gatherers and the rest of us, dependent as we are on agriculture. He invites us to recognise that the comfort and security we enjoy has come at a heavy price.

Against the Ice

The Classic Arctic Survival Story
Ejnar Mikkelsen, 2022
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the Danish explorer, Ejnar Mikkelsen, and his companion Iversen, headed off into the northern reaches of Greenland searching for traces of a lost expedition. They were trapped by the weather and had to survive two Arctic winters before at last they were rescued. These were the days before radio, when there was no way of calling for help. Trekking with dog sledges over huge distances, they endured every kind of hardship - very nearly dying of starvation - but somehow they kept going. Against The Ice is an epic tale of courage and endurance that deserves to be much better known.

Shackleton's Boat Journey

F. A. Worsley, 2007
After Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, had been caught in the pack ice and sank, he and his crew managed to reach Elephant Island in the ship’s boats. The Antarctic winter was closing in and the only hope of rescue lay in crossing the Southern Ocean to the island of South Georgia where there was a whaling station. Shackleton, accompanied by Worsley - the captain of Endurance - and four other men, set out in one of the boats. Thanks in large part to Worsley’s skill with a sextant, they were able to make an accurate landfall but then they had to survive a hurricane and cross an unmapped range of ice-clad mountains. Worsley’s account of their long voyage in a small boat across the most tempestuous seas in the world - in mid-winter - is awe-inspiring.