Working at the End of the World: An Antarctic Diary
This honest, often terrifying often funny account of travelling and working in the magnificence of Antarctica will allow the reader to visualise and feel the harshness and beauty of the great white continent. It is the story of Con Curtis’s work as a Field Assistant for the British Antarctic Survey in the mountains of Antarctica. It is about how someone from a tough inner-city council estate can venture into, and write about such a wild and magnificent environment. The majority of the book is the diary account of a two-person deep field research trip onto the remote and isolated Dyer Plateau. This was a glaciology project in North West Antarctica that was researching climate patterns, culminating in an epic 280-kilometre sled journey that had never been undertaken before, and probably never repeated since. The duo travelled from their base camp high on the Plateau, through the Batterbee Mountains, then a first descent of the treacherous Norman Glacier, across the George VI frozen sea channel to the sanctuary of Fossil Bluff transit hut on Alexander Island. The opening chapter looks at the author’s motivation to travel and work in the Antarctic, followed by an account of the 6-week journey from England to the Antarctic on the research ship ‘The RRS John Biscoe’. The main content of the book is about being out in the remote mountains facing up to extreme adversity in the coldest place on the planet while retaining ones sense of humour; about the psychology of spending time tent bound in extreme isolation with just one other person, an honest reflection at the sad moments while being in a storm bound tent, dwelling on life back in England, there is humour throughout, and also the real and honest fear that one feels when in truly dire situations hundreds of miles from safety.
Released on the 30th of November 2017.
Available at Amazon, Waterstones, Austin Macauley Publishers and other major book retailers.
"To sum up, Working at the End of the World is a truly gripping read and I struggled to put it down once I had started it… and despite the apparent harsh conditions, it made me want to visit the Antarctic more than ever!"
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