Finding Endurance

The discovery of Endurance briefly swept the anxiety and rancour of 2022 from the headlines of the world, and new generations thrilled again to one of the greatest tales of all time.

Acclaimed South African writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey has a deeply personal relationship with the story of Endurance and in this lyrical, loving journey into past and present, into humanity and the natural world, above and below the Antarctic ice, he revisits the famous story from a contemporary perspective, wondering why it seems to mean more today than ever before, and exploring our changing relationship with ourselves and the ice, and with our shared story of survival.

Drawing on literature, natural history, personal memoir and the thrilling epics of polar adventure, this is finally a celebration of the human spirit and the delivering powers of calculated optimism. If the story of Ernest Shackleton and Endurance tells us anything, it's that in the face of self-inflicted natural disaster, when there's no one to help us but ourselves, we can still pull off a miracle or two. From the bottom of the Weddell sea, Endurance still whispers that not all is lost, and not forever.