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The White
It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. This book transports us to the last days of those expeditions in the white continent. Sweeping through deaths and disasters, this book lays bare the forces that drove these explorers.
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2001
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16 people want to read
About the author
Adrian Caesar
15 books4 followersAdrian Caesar is an Australian author and poet. Born in the United Kingdom, he emigrated to Australia in 1982. He studied at Reading University and has held appointments at various Australian universities, including the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales at Canberra’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Caesar is the author of several books, including the prize-winning non-fiction novel THE WHITE based on the Antarctic exploration of Robert F. Scott and Douglas Mawson from 1911 to 1913. His poems have been widely published and his 2005 poetry collection HIGH WIRE was shortlisted for the 2007 Judith Wright Prize.
Caesar is the author of several books, including the prize-winning non-fiction novel THE WHITE based on the Antarctic exploration of Robert F. Scott and Douglas Mawson from 1911 to 1913. His poems have been widely published and his 2005 poetry collection HIGH WIRE was shortlisted for the 2007 Judith Wright Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 6, 2025
My lack of research before I bought this book has come back to bite me. I didn't enjoy this book, and had I understood its premise I would not have bought it... so let me explain...
This is the GR blurb: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. This book transports us to the last days of those expeditions in the white continent. Sweeping through deaths and disasters, this book lays bare the forces that drove these explorers.
The back of the book however says It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. Adrian Caesar's stunning stroke of imaginative re-creation transports us to the last days of those perilous expeditions in the heart of the white continent.
And so, there is my problem "imaginative re-creation". In other words this author is fictionalising the known facts and filling in his own gaps.
So both RF Scott and Douglas Mawson were carrying out Antarctic expeditions over the period of 1911 to 1913, independently of each other, although they did have history together. Scott was racing to be first to reach the pole, against yet another expedition - led by Amundsen the Norwegian. Mawson was on an Australian expedition exploring the Antarctic coast closest to Australia.
This book concentrates on the end of both Scott and Mawson's journeys. In each case he has diaries of the men on the expeditions and in Mawson's case various information released after his return - Scott of course dies (not a spoiler to most I expect!).
I found it ironic that Caesar mentions more than once that when carrying out his research at the libraries where the archives of the respective explorers are held, the staff at Scott's said the hoped it wasn't another hatchet-job, and the staff at Mawson's said they hoped it wasn't another hagiography... because that was exactly how this book read.
Nothing about Scott was very upbeat and Caesar was critical of everything. For Mawson it was more that events conspired against his planning. I didn't find the writing very even-handed. But worse that this, there was far too much speculation in this for me - speculation about conversations with the other men, speculation about things the mend did and things they thought. There were even several examples of where the author outlined a dream these men had and what it meant...
This type of speculation just does not appeal to me, and I really should not have started reading this book, let alone finished it... so really my fault...
2 stars
This is the GR blurb: It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. This book transports us to the last days of those expeditions in the white continent. Sweeping through deaths and disasters, this book lays bare the forces that drove these explorers.
The back of the book however says It is 1912, the age of Antarctic exploration. Scott's journey has ended. Mawson's is just beginning. Adrian Caesar's stunning stroke of imaginative re-creation transports us to the last days of those perilous expeditions in the heart of the white continent.
And so, there is my problem "imaginative re-creation". In other words this author is fictionalising the known facts and filling in his own gaps.
So both RF Scott and Douglas Mawson were carrying out Antarctic expeditions over the period of 1911 to 1913, independently of each other, although they did have history together. Scott was racing to be first to reach the pole, against yet another expedition - led by Amundsen the Norwegian. Mawson was on an Australian expedition exploring the Antarctic coast closest to Australia.
This book concentrates on the end of both Scott and Mawson's journeys. In each case he has diaries of the men on the expeditions and in Mawson's case various information released after his return - Scott of course dies (not a spoiler to most I expect!).
I found it ironic that Caesar mentions more than once that when carrying out his research at the libraries where the archives of the respective explorers are held, the staff at Scott's said the hoped it wasn't another hatchet-job, and the staff at Mawson's said they hoped it wasn't another hagiography... because that was exactly how this book read.
Nothing about Scott was very upbeat and Caesar was critical of everything. For Mawson it was more that events conspired against his planning. I didn't find the writing very even-handed. But worse that this, there was far too much speculation in this for me - speculation about conversations with the other men, speculation about things the mend did and things they thought. There were even several examples of where the author outlined a dream these men had and what it meant...
This type of speculation just does not appeal to me, and I really should not have started reading this book, let alone finished it... so really my fault...
2 stars
January 3, 2015
This will contain spoilers, but its a 100 year old tale of fact so if you don't know how it ends it is time you did.
The book is split into two very contrasting tales of Antarctic exploration of 1912.
The first deals with Scott.
This follows the modern tradition of basically calling Scott a hidebound bungler who, through systematic mismanagement, leads to the death of his comrades.
This is not in the same league as Roland Huntford's critique which must be the low point of Scott's image. It has more balance and humanity than that.
Oates gets out the tent under his own steam as he does in so many books but could he really have got out of the tent unaided. Left to his fate because the idea of taking a drug overdose was considered unsound on religious grounds by a tent mate.
The 3 remaining members of the team then sit about and wait to die largely anchored in place by a fast failing Scott who fails to follow Oates lead.
This book was written before the 2012 research that showed Scott had left written instructions for base camp to send out dog teams to meet the polar party on the return journey.
Base camp failed to follow those orders and Scott dies 11 miles short of one ton depot at point at which he could have reasonably hoped to have been met by dog teams from base camp if his orders had been followed.
Then there is the plucky Mawson who strives forward not willing to sit still and die. He is the lone survivor of a three man team. His colleagues deaths having happened through no more than misfortune and not mismanagement.
Scott is English.
Mawson is Australian.
Adrian Ceasar is Australian.
Author speculation is neatly woven into the historical fact and the reader has to take care to recognise this.
It is certainly a great read and an addition to the legacy of these explorers, especially Mawson who may be less well-known outside of his native Australia and deserves a much wider audience.
The contrasts are stark and fascinating and the different cultures the two leaders were brought up in is a really interesting element. Setting the two men in juxtaposition in one book a stroke of brilliance.
It is difficult not to have sympathy with the books standpoint with regard the relative merits of Scott and Mawson. Certainly if I had to choose whose expedition to go on I would be with Mawson every time.
However I believe the truth about Scott is probably not best defined by his writings when dying of starvation in the most ghastly of circumstances whilst most likely under the influence of drugs. To judge a man who was a product of his time harshly 100 years later from an armchair brings it's own moral weakness with it.
The author himself sums it up neatly in the final chapter.
In Cambridge to research Scott he is warned off. Staff fear another hatchet job, it has all been written before, surely this isn't to be a novel.
In Australia to research Mawson he is welcomed with open arms, the staff hoping it isn't going to be mere hero worship.
Staff in England and Australia both have grounds to consider this book a curates egg.
I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any but the most die-hard Scott enthusiast. If Sir Ranulph Fiennes can call it "magnificent" that should be good enough for the rest of us.
I have to give it 5 on this scoring, but in my head it is 4.5
The book is split into two very contrasting tales of Antarctic exploration of 1912.
The first deals with Scott.
This follows the modern tradition of basically calling Scott a hidebound bungler who, through systematic mismanagement, leads to the death of his comrades.
This is not in the same league as Roland Huntford's critique which must be the low point of Scott's image. It has more balance and humanity than that.
Oates gets out the tent under his own steam as he does in so many books but could he really have got out of the tent unaided. Left to his fate because the idea of taking a drug overdose was considered unsound on religious grounds by a tent mate.
The 3 remaining members of the team then sit about and wait to die largely anchored in place by a fast failing Scott who fails to follow Oates lead.
This book was written before the 2012 research that showed Scott had left written instructions for base camp to send out dog teams to meet the polar party on the return journey.
Base camp failed to follow those orders and Scott dies 11 miles short of one ton depot at point at which he could have reasonably hoped to have been met by dog teams from base camp if his orders had been followed.
Then there is the plucky Mawson who strives forward not willing to sit still and die. He is the lone survivor of a three man team. His colleagues deaths having happened through no more than misfortune and not mismanagement.
Scott is English.
Mawson is Australian.
Adrian Ceasar is Australian.
Author speculation is neatly woven into the historical fact and the reader has to take care to recognise this.
It is certainly a great read and an addition to the legacy of these explorers, especially Mawson who may be less well-known outside of his native Australia and deserves a much wider audience.
The contrasts are stark and fascinating and the different cultures the two leaders were brought up in is a really interesting element. Setting the two men in juxtaposition in one book a stroke of brilliance.
It is difficult not to have sympathy with the books standpoint with regard the relative merits of Scott and Mawson. Certainly if I had to choose whose expedition to go on I would be with Mawson every time.
However I believe the truth about Scott is probably not best defined by his writings when dying of starvation in the most ghastly of circumstances whilst most likely under the influence of drugs. To judge a man who was a product of his time harshly 100 years later from an armchair brings it's own moral weakness with it.
The author himself sums it up neatly in the final chapter.
In Cambridge to research Scott he is warned off. Staff fear another hatchet job, it has all been written before, surely this isn't to be a novel.
In Australia to research Mawson he is welcomed with open arms, the staff hoping it isn't going to be mere hero worship.
Staff in England and Australia both have grounds to consider this book a curates egg.
I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any but the most die-hard Scott enthusiast. If Sir Ranulph Fiennes can call it "magnificent" that should be good enough for the rest of us.
I have to give it 5 on this scoring, but in my head it is 4.5
May 15, 2021
Interesting documentary on the tragic polar expedition to the South Pole
September 4, 2012
Such a compelling read, one of the most excellent examples of narrative non-fiction I have encountered. The history of Antarctic discovery told through the stories of the two most famous adventurers to attempt to conquer the last undiscovered continent. Beautifully written.
July 28, 2013
One of the most interesting books I have read for ages.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews