The Worst Journey in the World (1922) is often cited as a masterpiece of travel literature. It is number one on National Geographic's list of 100 all time best travel literature, and is the first title in the prestigious Picador Travel Classics series. A. Alvarez has praised its "perfect prose: lucid, vivid, bone-simple, and full of feeling." The expedition was literary from the start and the "good modern fiction" the party brought along included Thackery, Charlotte Bronte, Bulwer-Lytton and Dickens. The poetry packed to the pole on the final fateful journey was Browning and Tennyson. Authors who stirred discussions included Shaw and Wells. Authors who were friends with members of the expedition included Galsworthy and Barrie. Robert Louis Stevenson is often mentioned. Each of the chapters of the book begins with poetry fragment from Shakespeare, Browning, Huxley, etc.. even the structure of the book is literary, re-telling the same events from different perspectives, building up to the climatic discovery of the fate of Scott. Cherry himself often delights with brilliant insightful views on travel, man, the meaning of life. This is Travel "Literature" with a capital L.

Apsley Cherry-Garrad ("Cherry") was the wealthy heir of two estates who joined Scott's team as an assistant zoologist at the age of 24. He was educated at Oxford in Classics and modern history. In the tradition of the British amateur explorer he took on multiple roles, ultimately becoming the expeditions historian. He wrote Journey using the diaries of the team in the years after WWI while recovering from an illness.

From their base camp at McMurdo Sound the three-year expedition made a number of trips composed of different groups. The trip to the pole by Scott is the most famous, but there were others. The title of the book, "Worst Journey", actually refers to a 67-mile 5-week trip by three members, including Cherry, in what at the time was twice as long as any previous Antarctic journey on the open ice. It only composes about 1/8th of the books length but is probably the most remarkable. They survived -70 degree temperatures and hurricane storms with primitive gear made from leather and canvas while man-hauling multi-hundred pound sleds and living on 4000 calories or less per day of nearly vitamin-free biscuits and pemmican (considered "adequate" at the time, today twice that is usual for explorers). Cherry interlaces his narrative with allusions to Dante, The Pilgrims Progress and Walt Whitman all the while maintaining that plucky cheery Edwardian foolhardiness that would run aground in the trenches of WWI. Cherry's teeth shattered from the cold, killing the nerves.

The retelling of Scott's trip to the Pole is equally gripping, and "horrific", also living up to the books title. In later years Cherry suffered from survivors guilt and wrote Postscript to the Worst Journey in the World (1948) in which he severely reproaches himself for not doing more to save Scott and the party. Cherry died in 1959.

EDITIONS: Only some editions contain this Postscript. The Penguin edition does not. Officially it was re-printed in the 1951 edition, and in the 1994 Picador Travel Classics edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux. I also found a 2004 paperback edition with an Introduction by Paul Theroux which might contain the Postscript but I don't know for sure: The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913 (Explorers Club Classic) (2004). It should also be noted the 1951 edition was "corrected by the author" so it probably contains other changes - these changes I believe are also reflected in the Picador edition, but not the Penguin edition which is based on the 1922 text, as most are since it is now in the public domain. If you can afford it, the 1994 Picador hardcover appears to be the most up to date authoritative edition, otherwise the 2004 paperback looks like a re-reprint of the Picador for a lot less, but I have not seen it to verify. ( )

The story of the noblest, most quintessentially British cock-up of all time. Read it and thank God you were not there. Read it snugly by your fire, and learn what heroism is, and guts and fortitude. This is *the* iconic book of the snow and the cold, and tells of a tragedy on the scale of King Lear. ( )

Thank goodness that Cherry-Garrard was spared to relate this harrowing tale. Imagine it being so cold that it’s hard to ‘chip slivers off of butter’!?

In places the language was so dated (or British) that I had to make out what was meant by the context.

It must have been terribly disorienting to not be able to anchor yourself to seasons or 24 hour cycles of day and night. I found it very confusing to try and imagine where the heck they were – despite the supplied maps because South was essentially ‘up’. I thought it very clever when they decided to ignore the construct of 24 hour days when it was continually dark twilight.

Okay they were military, which I suppose helped but I found them admirably decisive on some unimaginably difficult issues.

Some favorite passages;

"Looking back I realized...that those Hut Point day would prove some of the happiest in my life. Just enough to eat and keep warm, no more -- no frills nor trimmings: there is many a worse and more elaborate life. The necessaries of civilization were luxuries to us: ...the luxuries of civilization satisfy only those wants which they themselves create."

I can't help thinking that the men’s buoyant mood is because they are thousands of miles away from the nearest woman.


For sheer downright misery give me a hurricane, not too warm, the yard of a sailing ship, a wet sail and a bout of sea-sickness.

Have you ever had a craving for sugar. Have you ever had a craving for sugar which never leaves you, even when asleep?

Why can’t men be like this at home;

The best sledger is the man who sees what has to be done, and does it – and says nothing about it…There is nothing so irritating as the man who is always coming in and informing all and sundry that he has repaired his sledge, or built a wall, or filled the cooker, or mended his socks.

Other things being equal, the men with the greatest store of nervous energy came best through this expedition. Having more imagination, they have a worse time than their more phlegmatic companions; but they get things done. And when the worst came to the worst, their strength of mind triumphed over their weakness of body. If you want a good polar traveler get a man without too much muscle, with good physical tone, and let his mind be on wires – of steel. And if you can’t get both, sacrifice physique and bank on will.

How much better has it been than lounging in too great comfort at home.

Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion.


It’s rather amazing how ignorant they were about scurvy and diet less than only 100 years ago. The passages on nutrition were fascinating to me. ( )

Paul Theroux calls this first person account of the ill-fated 1910-1913 Robert F. Scott expedition to the South Pole his “favorite travel book.” I know what he means. My copy, a musty 2nd edition that I found in the bowels of the University library, is well over 500 pages long, and I think I read the darn book in three days. I simply could not put it down. It starts out “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.” Theroux writes that the book is “about courage, misery, starvation, heroism, exploration, discovery, and fiendship.” And it is about all that and so much more. What commitment these men had to science and to each other. As I get older I get more cynical about the world I am leaving to my children. This book restored my faith. And to think it happened less than 100 years ago is astounding.

A personal connection to this book also added to its interest. Tom Crean, one of the members of this expedition, as well as Shackleton's legendary Endurance expedition a few years later, was a brother of my wife's great grandfather. This is the best book I have read in a long, long time! ( )

I read this because the National Geographic in a list of "greatest adventure books" listed it as No. 1. I found it a not overly engaging read. The author and his compatriots on Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1910-1912 had horrendous difficulties, including a winter trip to gather Emperor Penguin eggs, and I did not enjoy reading about it. I have read a number of books re Antarctic exploration and the best one in my estimation is Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, which I read 1 Mar 2003. Also higher on my list of great adventure books is Byrd's Alone, which I read 10 Apr 1979. One must admire the spirit with which Scott and his men faced their ordeal, but I kept saying to myself: it can't be worth it, in view of what they were going thru. But maybe if I were younger I might view it differently. ( )