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Empire Antarctica : ice, silence & emperor penguins / Gavin Francis.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Berkeley : Counterpoint, [2013]Description: ix, 260 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1619021846 (hbk.)
  • 9781619021846 (hbk.)
Subject(s):
Contents:
Preface : a glimpse from the ice -- Imagining Antarctica -- The axis of the Atlantic -- Of kings and emperors -- Antarctica at last! -- High days and holidays -- The hinge of the continent -- Waiting for winter -- Darkness and light -- Midwinter -- The third quarter -- The promise of life -- Gathering light -- Freedom of the ice -- Of endings and beginnings -- Afterword : the memory of Antarctica.
Summary: Describes the author's time working as a basecamp doctor at Antarctica's Halley research station and his fascination with the emperor penguin community that shared the icy continent with him.Summary: Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the basecamp doctor at Halley, a profoundly isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica. It was a year of unparalleled silence and solitude, with few distractions and a very little human history, but also a rare opportunity to live among emperor penguins, the only species truly at home in the Antarctic. Francis explores the world of great beauty conjured from the simplest of elements, the hardship of living at 50c below zero and the unexpected comfort that the penguin community bring.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 919.89 F818 Available 33111007485192
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Gavin Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the basecamp doctor at Halley, a profoundly isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica. So remote, it is said to be easier to evacuate a casualty from the International Space Station than it is to bring someone out of Halley in winter.



Antarctica offered a year of unparalleled silence and solitude, with few distractions and a very little human history, but also a rare opportunity to live among emperor penguins, the only species truly at home in he Antarctic. Following Penguins throughout the year -- from a summer of perpetual sunshine to months of winter darkness -- Gavin Francis explores the world of great beauty conjured from the simplest of elements, the hardship of living at 50 c below zero and the unexpected comfort that the penguin community bring.



Empire Antarctica is the story of one man and his fascination with the world's loneliest continent, as well as the emperor penguins who weather the winter with him. Combining an evocative narrative with a sublime sensitivity to the natural world, this is travel writing at its very best

"First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Chatto & Windus"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preface : a glimpse from the ice -- Imagining Antarctica -- The axis of the Atlantic -- Of kings and emperors -- Antarctica at last! -- High days and holidays -- The hinge of the continent -- Waiting for winter -- Darkness and light -- Midwinter -- The third quarter -- The promise of life -- Gathering light -- Freedom of the ice -- Of endings and beginnings -- Afterword : the memory of Antarctica.

Describes the author's time working as a basecamp doctor at Antarctica's Halley research station and his fascination with the emperor penguin community that shared the icy continent with him.

Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the basecamp doctor at Halley, a profoundly isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica. It was a year of unparalleled silence and solitude, with few distractions and a very little human history, but also a rare opportunity to live among emperor penguins, the only species truly at home in the Antarctic. Francis explores the world of great beauty conjured from the simplest of elements, the hardship of living at 50c below zero and the unexpected comfort that the penguin community bring.

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