This was a fabulous book. What an explorer! ( )

Bown's biography of the great polar explorer is the perfect antidote to a winter's day. Reading of Amundsen's travails, I guarantee you will automatically feel warm by comparison.

As Bown points out, children in Anglophone countries were educated to admire Scott's tragic failure ahead of the man who actually achieved the goal of reaching the South Pole. Amundsen's achievements were relegated to footnote status, and this book has done a lot to rectify that and give this great man due credit.

Bown's book is no hagiography though, and he is adept at identifying the character flaws and mis-steps that in some ways blighted Amundsen's career and reputation. Despite his global fame, he never reached a point of financial security or domestic harmony, and he burnt most of his bridges with the people and organisations that would have supported him. These outcomes were due to a certain level of naivety outside of his own sphere of expertise, and also a function of his uncompromising attitude towards achieving his goals. Of course this latter characteristic was a key contributor to his success, but it may have also contained the seeds of his downfall.

The book provides detailed accounts of Amundsen's major expeditions, and brings both the hardships and the characters involved to life. Strangely, what should be a dramatic highlight of the book - the final attainment of the South Pole - is dealt with in a perfunctory and downbeat manner that was quite puzzling. On the whole though, this was a gripping story that added greatly to my understanding of a man poorly treated by history. ( )