Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.

Extract from Scott’s ‘message to the public’, March 1912.

The late 1890s saw the start of a ‘heroic age’ in polar exploration. This book tells the story of three men who were to embody the spirit of the time – driven by courage, determination and ambition, to be the first to discover the South Pole – Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen and Ernest Shackleton.