Stephen Martin (1)

I've also read Ant in this series and Penguin is similar, in that there is more cultural history in it than natural history. However, the balance is more even here and, I think, the better for it.

The accounts of human interaction with penguins are by turns entertaining, moving and depressingly inevitable when dealing with the wholesale slaughter of penguins for their oil.

There are loads of penguin photos and illustrations, which really enhance the text. And at the back there is a short show more penguin timeline and description of all the extant penguin species.

If there had been more about penguin evolution and ecology, I'd have given this four stars. Still, enjoyable and I will be looking to get some more books from the series. show less

Disappointing, I bought it - to add to my extensive Antarctic collection - from the publishers bookshop at the State Library of NSW. However it is written in a pedestrian style, suffers grossly from a lack of maps (try the Readers Digest Antarctica to see how maps should be done!) and contains at least two glaring errors that should've been picked up by a good fact checker/editor. Sorry to say this about a fellow librarian but definitely a good book trying to get out of a first draft. Hmmm. show more Still the pictures are nice! show less

A crisply written history of the coldest continent by a librarian at the State Library of New South Wales. The account of Captain Cook's southern voyages which succeeded in disproving the existence of another continent in the southern latitudes is particlarly good.