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Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End
The discovery of Endurance briefly swept the anxiety and rancor 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.
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.
272 pages, Paperback
Published September 24, 2024
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July 13, 2023
#FindingEndurance – David Bristow-Bovey
#JonathanBall
True to her name, the Endurance persevered and was found in her watery grave in March 2022, after disappearing beneath the Antarctic waters 106 years earlier. Her commanding officer, Ernest Shackleton, and her crew had all perished by that time, but their legend – with her as the centerpiece – survived and is retold by a person who has had his own fascination with her since childhood.
The result is an unusual combination of polar history set more than a century ago and a very personal memoir set in the present. In alternating chapters, the author retells the history of Shackleton and Endurance, and his own. He draws on literature and natural history as sources for the historical parts, using the latter as metaphors and analogies reflected in his own life. A short note about the author reveals: ‘His fascination with the Endurance expedition began as a small boy, when his father first told him that he has been south with Ernest Shackleton. He still believes him.’
In the author’s own words, he was fully aware of the impossibility of this claim; his father was not even born when Endurance left England in 1914, but he fondly recalls how his father used to tell him stories, not all of them necessarily true, after becoming housebound after suffering a debilitating stroke. The stories have become fragmented over the years, scattered within his memories, but he retained the belief that ‘If I could gather them up…I could make the world whole again.’ (39) Combining the history of Endurance with his own, offered him that rare opportunity.
For those unfamiliar with the history, a short summary may be of some assistance: After Roald Amundsen won the race for the south pole and the death of Robert Scott in 1912, Shackleton intended to sail Endurance to an indentation called Vahsel Bay, on the coast of Antarctica. From there he planned to reach the south pole accompanied by six men and seventy dogs, and then to cross the continent from west to east, more than 2500km past the pole. Should they succeed, they would be the first men to do so and the first to reach the pole from the Weddell Sea in the west.
The historical sections include the background to this epic journey, the tragic death of Scott, the horrors of being stuck in the ice for the duration of an Antarctic winter, fighting starvation, exposure, scurvy and the dreaded ‘polar anaemia’ (now referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder), known to drive men to madness. The author brilliantly succeeds in drawing wisdom from these sections, applicable in both the present and future. With reference to the sinking of Endurance he states: ‘She was going, but she was going both fast and slow, with that fearful two-pacedness of a dream, the way we age, or the world ends: the way an unstoppable thing is happening in the future and also right now.’ (94), in respect of Shackleton’s leadership style: ‘Leadership is getting people to agree that with you they can do better; that being wrong with you is better than being right without you.’ (146), and the nature of man: ‘Some are built to stay and some are built to move.’ (140)
Several references to well-known literature are applied to both the past and the present as well; the interconnectedness described by Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the freezing of time in Barrie’s Peter Pan, and the nature of journeys in De Saint-Exupery’s Wind, sand and stars.
It is both impossible and unfair to force this majestic publication into a single genre-box; it is a riveting polar adventure; a glimpse into the past; reminiscing, personal thoughts; life lessons; philosophical arguments; environmental awareness; a memoir, and a tribute to fathers and sons. But the outstanding aspect is the author’s ability to illustrate interconnectedness; the joining of the past, present, and future by presenting Antarctica itself as prime example thereof: ‘…the Antarctic exists in the imagination today as a barometer of change… The loss of the Antarctic has become a synonym or a metonym for the loss of the world…’ (163)
This is the type of book that will be treasured in years to come.
In addition to the sources listed on pages 315-318, those interested in additional reading regarding the life and travels of Ernest Shackleton, will probably enjoy Ranulph Fiennes’ ‘Shackleton’ (2022) and the fictional account of the horrors of Seasonal Affective Disorder by Dan Simmons in the novel ‘The terror’ (2007)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
#JonathanBall
True to her name, the Endurance persevered and was found in her watery grave in March 2022, after disappearing beneath the Antarctic waters 106 years earlier. Her commanding officer, Ernest Shackleton, and her crew had all perished by that time, but their legend – with her as the centerpiece – survived and is retold by a person who has had his own fascination with her since childhood.
The result is an unusual combination of polar history set more than a century ago and a very personal memoir set in the present. In alternating chapters, the author retells the history of Shackleton and Endurance, and his own. He draws on literature and natural history as sources for the historical parts, using the latter as metaphors and analogies reflected in his own life. A short note about the author reveals: ‘His fascination with the Endurance expedition began as a small boy, when his father first told him that he has been south with Ernest Shackleton. He still believes him.’
In the author’s own words, he was fully aware of the impossibility of this claim; his father was not even born when Endurance left England in 1914, but he fondly recalls how his father used to tell him stories, not all of them necessarily true, after becoming housebound after suffering a debilitating stroke. The stories have become fragmented over the years, scattered within his memories, but he retained the belief that ‘If I could gather them up…I could make the world whole again.’ (39) Combining the history of Endurance with his own, offered him that rare opportunity.
For those unfamiliar with the history, a short summary may be of some assistance: After Roald Amundsen won the race for the south pole and the death of Robert Scott in 1912, Shackleton intended to sail Endurance to an indentation called Vahsel Bay, on the coast of Antarctica. From there he planned to reach the south pole accompanied by six men and seventy dogs, and then to cross the continent from west to east, more than 2500km past the pole. Should they succeed, they would be the first men to do so and the first to reach the pole from the Weddell Sea in the west.
The historical sections include the background to this epic journey, the tragic death of Scott, the horrors of being stuck in the ice for the duration of an Antarctic winter, fighting starvation, exposure, scurvy and the dreaded ‘polar anaemia’ (now referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder), known to drive men to madness. The author brilliantly succeeds in drawing wisdom from these sections, applicable in both the present and future. With reference to the sinking of Endurance he states: ‘She was going, but she was going both fast and slow, with that fearful two-pacedness of a dream, the way we age, or the world ends: the way an unstoppable thing is happening in the future and also right now.’ (94), in respect of Shackleton’s leadership style: ‘Leadership is getting people to agree that with you they can do better; that being wrong with you is better than being right without you.’ (146), and the nature of man: ‘Some are built to stay and some are built to move.’ (140)
Several references to well-known literature are applied to both the past and the present as well; the interconnectedness described by Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the freezing of time in Barrie’s Peter Pan, and the nature of journeys in De Saint-Exupery’s Wind, sand and stars.
It is both impossible and unfair to force this majestic publication into a single genre-box; it is a riveting polar adventure; a glimpse into the past; reminiscing, personal thoughts; life lessons; philosophical arguments; environmental awareness; a memoir, and a tribute to fathers and sons. But the outstanding aspect is the author’s ability to illustrate interconnectedness; the joining of the past, present, and future by presenting Antarctica itself as prime example thereof: ‘…the Antarctic exists in the imagination today as a barometer of change… The loss of the Antarctic has become a synonym or a metonym for the loss of the world…’ (163)
This is the type of book that will be treasured in years to come.
In addition to the sources listed on pages 315-318, those interested in additional reading regarding the life and travels of Ernest Shackleton, will probably enjoy Ranulph Fiennes’ ‘Shackleton’ (2022) and the fictional account of the horrors of Seasonal Affective Disorder by Dan Simmons in the novel ‘The terror’ (2007)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
December 29, 2024
What a great book to be the first out the gates in a new year.
This book has changed what it means to me to be a leader.
It has changed what it means to me to be an author.
It has changed what it means to me to be a storyteller.
Just brilliant.
This book has changed what it means to me to be a leader.
It has changed what it means to me to be an author.
It has changed what it means to me to be a storyteller.
Just brilliant.
May 24, 2023
A very insightful and lively book. The author intertwines the story of Shackleton and his trek across the Antarctic with some insights into his own life. He makes pains to humanise Shackleton and what made him different from the other explorers of the period. My only complaint is that I wish more time had been dedicated to the more recent discovery of Endurance resting place beneath the Antarctic ice.
August 16, 2025
Wonderful.A gem of a book.
April 7, 2024
An enjoyable read, but I thought the book’s blurb was a bit misleading. There’s not much new information linked to the discovery of the Endurance in 2022, and while the author’s personal history is touching and artfully woven into the narrative, the vast majority of the book is a retelling of the already well documented expedition.
I struggle to find a reason why anyone should choose this account over the thoroughly researched versions preceding it. Personally, I’d recommend Alfred’s Lansing’s “Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage” instead.
I struggle to find a reason why anyone should choose this account over the thoroughly researched versions preceding it. Personally, I’d recommend Alfred’s Lansing’s “Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage” instead.
Read
April 16, 2023I have read the story of the Endurance before, but this is a fresh new take on it - a thrilling rip roaring tale of adventure interspersed with the author’s personal narrative on finding hope and endurance in the modern world. And some truly fascinating digressive gems. Told with real warmth and heart and a clear love of Shackleton and the natural world.
September 7, 2023
I loved this book. Gentle writing, rich texts, deep insights. I don’t usually write in books but I underlined and hearted and commented throughout this one, then bought another for a friend and did the same for hers. There’s something very intimate and special about the author sharing his many worlds which he skillfully combines into a story/memoir/comedy/insightful guide to life. I hope you love it as much as I did, it’s a unique masterpiece.
June 21, 2024
I very much enjoyed the story of Shackleton and his crew. It would have been good to learn more about the finding of Endurance though, who was looking and why, how they found it etc.
I’m still confused though about the relevance of all the in between chapters - I thought he’d end the book by bringing all these loose threads together and explain how they were relevant to the Endurance story (other than his father telling him he’d met Shakleton).
I’m still confused though about the relevance of all the in between chapters - I thought he’d end the book by bringing all these loose threads together and explain how they were relevant to the Endurance story (other than his father telling him he’d met Shakleton).
May 16, 2024
The classic tough-as-nails hero’s journey interspersed with beautifully written, moving passages on the author’s own journey. The author masterfully evoking emotional response without crossing into the overly sentimental and sprinkling in enough comedy to avoid being too self-serious. A brilliant book, well worth your time.
October 3, 2024
Thrilled by this last minute pick in O.R Thambo airport. I was familiar with the story of the Shackleton/Endurance expedition and that the wreck had recently been found but the author manages to humanise every single person so beautifully while acknowledging the flaws associated with the human condition. This one will stay with me for some time to come.
Read
July 1, 2023Did I actually read this book? No. Did I mark it as read because I would rather shoot myself in the foot than let my friends know what filth I ACTUALLY read but I want to still count it as my reading goal? Yes. But it was the same page and word count so 🥴
Kate, mind your business.
Kate, mind your business.
July 24, 2025
I FINALLY finished a book this year. I was excited to read this book but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. Because of that I lost motivation and it slipped away from my attention. The story of the Endurance and Shackleton is magnificent and should be known by everyone. But I simply didn’t need to know about the authors relationship with his father. This bored me.
February 18, 2025
Una joyita inesperada!
July 1, 2025
Amazing
Audio book. Author goes off piste with side thoughts all during the book. Very interesting, learnt a lot. What an amazing leader……
Audio book. Author goes off piste with side thoughts all during the book. Very interesting, learnt a lot. What an amazing leader……
February 6, 2025
A quite remarkable read. Unexpectedly enthralling!
November 10, 2023
Loved this!
February 22, 2025
I don't give five stars lightly. This extraordinary book is in my top five, ever.
August 8, 2024
The prose just shimmers like the light on the ice!
Bristow-Bovey weaves a personal story of his father (who died when he was ten) with the story of Shackleton and the finding of the Endurance.
I also read “The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance” by Mensun Bound, a much more scientific account of the 2022 finding of the ship. The second book I read mostly for the first-hand account by Bound who is a marine archaeologist, and director of two expeditions to the rediscovery of the Endurance, with a team of international and South African scientists on the icebreaker, the SA Agulhas.
It was good to have the factual accounts, but the book I really connected to was Bovey’s.
It’s about the stories we are told, the stories we tell ourselves. It’s a story about the power of stories. It’s about the stories that construct us, how we build our lives around them. It’s about the stories his father told him and the ones he didn’t tell him.
He talks about the paradox of life and how it’s only a paradox because we’re looking at it through the narrow perspective of human scale of time and distance. He also focuses on what kind of man Shackleton was and his incredible qualities of leadership how, when one thing doesn’t work, he shapes himself to a new mark to keep playing the game. A style of leadership that is sorely needed today.
It’s a book to inspire the individual to reach further than he thought he could, it’s a book for the nation to seek leaders who play the game of life with compassion, integrity, and who reach for the collective dream, and who don’t give up.
Bristow-Bovey weaves a personal story of his father (who died when he was ten) with the story of Shackleton and the finding of the Endurance.
I also read “The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance” by Mensun Bound, a much more scientific account of the 2022 finding of the ship. The second book I read mostly for the first-hand account by Bound who is a marine archaeologist, and director of two expeditions to the rediscovery of the Endurance, with a team of international and South African scientists on the icebreaker, the SA Agulhas.
It was good to have the factual accounts, but the book I really connected to was Bovey’s.
It’s about the stories we are told, the stories we tell ourselves. It’s a story about the power of stories. It’s about the stories that construct us, how we build our lives around them. It’s about the stories his father told him and the ones he didn’t tell him.
He talks about the paradox of life and how it’s only a paradox because we’re looking at it through the narrow perspective of human scale of time and distance. He also focuses on what kind of man Shackleton was and his incredible qualities of leadership how, when one thing doesn’t work, he shapes himself to a new mark to keep playing the game. A style of leadership that is sorely needed today.
It’s a book to inspire the individual to reach further than he thought he could, it’s a book for the nation to seek leaders who play the game of life with compassion, integrity, and who reach for the collective dream, and who don’t give up.
December 29, 2023
This was my surprise favorite read of 2023. I’ve not been a fan of the author before (having once met him at a bar many years ago I had some judgements about his authenticity) and yet this book has revealed previously unknown depth (perhaps “uncharted depths” - pun intended) to his character and his writing ability. The writing and story telling is rich and multi layered with facts, fiction and true emotion. I made many highlights just for the beautiful arrangement of words and have recommended it to friends far and wide underlining that it’s a book for many readers: those interested in adventure, Edwardian exploration, memoir and the power of endurance in leadership and living a life with loss and optimism. Thank you DBB!
November 6, 2023
My best read in a long time. Telling the story of Shackleton and his crew, with authors personal story cleverly interwoven and fascinating facts thrown in, including psychological,physiological, geological, environmental and so much more. Warm, fuzzy and fascinating.
February 10, 2025
“A story may be false as a fact, but perfectly true as an illustration,” Alexander Kinglake
“In 1912, as Titanic sank, RMS Carpathia picked up her transmissions of SOS (actually CQD, the Marconi distress signal) and came racing to save the lives of more than 700 people. Days later, a crowd gathered at the New York Electrical Society to cheer Marconi - who had himself been booked on Titanic, before changing his mind - as a saviour, and a hero.
Titanic made Marconi a celebrity. Years later, when he was old and declining, lurching through a cascade of ever more serious heart events, he became obsessed with the idea that every transmission ever transmitted, every sound ever made, every word ever spoken still exists, travelling through space and therefore through time, in frequencies and radio waves that decay and grow ever fainter and move further away, yet still survive. If we could only devise a receiver sufficiently strong, thought Marconi, we could reach out through space and hear anything, everything that has ever been said.
We could hear, clear or crackling, the Wright Brothers whoop when their first plane flew and we could hear Bach giving music lessons to his son. We could hear Jesus talking in his sleep. We could hear our child's first laugh again, and the laugh of every baby that has ever laughed.
We could hear our fathers first meeting our mothers. We could hear their last words to us, and all the words we've forgotten. We could hear our mothers kiss us goodnight, night after night. We could hear, over and over, the ones we love tell us they love us. We could hear them say our names. Nothing would be lost, nothing would ever be lost, if only we had the right radio to hear it.”
“The third slope was the steepest, and took longest.
They had left Peggotty Camp at 3am, and had been climbing all day and now it was growing dark. it was too cold to spend the night up there. A cold mist rose. Their
heads ached with altitude.
They reached the final gap, and an ice ridge so narrow that Shackleton sat with one leg on either side of it. It was steep on the other side, but not as steep as the others.
Behind them the mist turned to fog, and climbed the slope towards them. They swung their legs over the edge.
Shackleton took the lead again, hacking steps and slots into the hard blue ice. The adze was becoming blunt, his arms were getting weak, the ice was hard as marble.
It was agonisingly slow. Night was falling. Finally, he carved out a platform wide enough to stand side by side, and they climbed down to join him.
They saw that below the platform the ice slope became almost sheer. They couldn't carve steps to get down. Up on the ridge the fog had reached the top and it came over and dropped to find them. They couldn't go back.
Shackleton said: We'll slide.
You would laugh at it in a movie. They couldn't see below if there were rocks, or crevasses, or if the slope would end and drop them into space. Indiana Jones might throw himself down an ice slope into misty nothing, but no one in real life, and certainly not Old Cautious, who had spent the last year eliminating every unnecessary risk.
Shackleton said: If we slide, we might die. If we do nothing, we will.”
“They talked about food. Each night Marston read out a recipe from a penny cookbook, only one per night, to make them last. They craved carbohydrates: jams, breads, porridge, cake, milk, eggs, honey. Wild wanted apple pud. ding and cream. Reg James wanted syrup pudding. They agreed they would shoot the first man back in civilisation who offered them meat.”
“In 1912, as Titanic sank, RMS Carpathia picked up her transmissions of SOS (actually CQD, the Marconi distress signal) and came racing to save the lives of more than 700 people. Days later, a crowd gathered at the New York Electrical Society to cheer Marconi - who had himself been booked on Titanic, before changing his mind - as a saviour, and a hero.
Titanic made Marconi a celebrity. Years later, when he was old and declining, lurching through a cascade of ever more serious heart events, he became obsessed with the idea that every transmission ever transmitted, every sound ever made, every word ever spoken still exists, travelling through space and therefore through time, in frequencies and radio waves that decay and grow ever fainter and move further away, yet still survive. If we could only devise a receiver sufficiently strong, thought Marconi, we could reach out through space and hear anything, everything that has ever been said.
We could hear, clear or crackling, the Wright Brothers whoop when their first plane flew and we could hear Bach giving music lessons to his son. We could hear Jesus talking in his sleep. We could hear our child's first laugh again, and the laugh of every baby that has ever laughed.
We could hear our fathers first meeting our mothers. We could hear their last words to us, and all the words we've forgotten. We could hear our mothers kiss us goodnight, night after night. We could hear, over and over, the ones we love tell us they love us. We could hear them say our names. Nothing would be lost, nothing would ever be lost, if only we had the right radio to hear it.”
“The third slope was the steepest, and took longest.
They had left Peggotty Camp at 3am, and had been climbing all day and now it was growing dark. it was too cold to spend the night up there. A cold mist rose. Their
heads ached with altitude.
They reached the final gap, and an ice ridge so narrow that Shackleton sat with one leg on either side of it. It was steep on the other side, but not as steep as the others.
Behind them the mist turned to fog, and climbed the slope towards them. They swung their legs over the edge.
Shackleton took the lead again, hacking steps and slots into the hard blue ice. The adze was becoming blunt, his arms were getting weak, the ice was hard as marble.
It was agonisingly slow. Night was falling. Finally, he carved out a platform wide enough to stand side by side, and they climbed down to join him.
They saw that below the platform the ice slope became almost sheer. They couldn't carve steps to get down. Up on the ridge the fog had reached the top and it came over and dropped to find them. They couldn't go back.
Shackleton said: We'll slide.
You would laugh at it in a movie. They couldn't see below if there were rocks, or crevasses, or if the slope would end and drop them into space. Indiana Jones might throw himself down an ice slope into misty nothing, but no one in real life, and certainly not Old Cautious, who had spent the last year eliminating every unnecessary risk.
Shackleton said: If we slide, we might die. If we do nothing, we will.”
“They talked about food. Each night Marston read out a recipe from a penny cookbook, only one per night, to make them last. They craved carbohydrates: jams, breads, porridge, cake, milk, eggs, honey. Wild wanted apple pud. ding and cream. Reg James wanted syrup pudding. They agreed they would shoot the first man back in civilisation who offered them meat.”
August 19, 2023
Darrel Bristow-Bovey's Finding Endurance celebrates a voyage that might have once been considered a failure but was, in fact, a triumph of the human spirit over disaster and tragedy. The author's perspective is welcome in a world where attaining the prize is frequently celebrated over the process of getting there. What is highlighted in this story is that it is the journey that is more important than the goal. With kindness and compassion, Bristow-Bovey showcases human nature. However, his writing isn't clouded by sentimentality. Instead, he astutely shows the positive and negative traits of Shackleton and his crew, who not only survived in icy conditions when they were cut off from the world in the Antarctic but thrived due to the unique nature of Ernest Shackleton's leadership.
The author comes face to face with the rawness of human motivation and what it is that drives us. What shines through in his writing is the idea that optimism is not about being falsely positive about the dreadful things that happen in this life. Instead, it is about adapting to the conditions you find yourself in and releasing the rigid and limiting belief that it is the world that should shape itself around you.
The personal elements of this story are beautifully woven in with gentleness and vulnerability. Indeed, like Shackleton, Bristow-Bovey shows us that living a gracious life is more about attitude than anything else—and that when you have the proper perspective, nothing can sink you.
A gem of a tale. I loved it!
The author comes face to face with the rawness of human motivation and what it is that drives us. What shines through in his writing is the idea that optimism is not about being falsely positive about the dreadful things that happen in this life. Instead, it is about adapting to the conditions you find yourself in and releasing the rigid and limiting belief that it is the world that should shape itself around you.
The personal elements of this story are beautifully woven in with gentleness and vulnerability. Indeed, like Shackleton, Bristow-Bovey shows us that living a gracious life is more about attitude than anything else—and that when you have the proper perspective, nothing can sink you.
A gem of a tale. I loved it!
April 3, 2024
"Home isn't a place, it's not even only a time, it's a time made visible by being stitched into an idea of a place." Everything I've read about Finding Enduarance is true and more. I knew I would like it, but it was so much better than my high expectations. Reading in the prologue that Michele Magwood played an important part in this book's birth only whet my appetite. I worked with Michele almost 40 years ago (I had to count my fingers three times to make sure I was getting this right). We were very young, and I was in my first of many radio jobs. Who knew that she would become a doyenne of South African book reviewers. Michele, if you happen to read this, lets have a drink and fill in the missing years.
I don't know Darrel Bristol-Bovey, but I have certainly known of him for many years. The way he weaves a beautiful piece of maritime history with the story of his family is brilliant. Knowing what I do of my own family, and the fear I have of writing it down, I would also add that Bovey is courageous. I'd love to talk to him about how he found the courage to do so. Memory is fallable, although many would refuse to admit their own weakness in this department, memory should never get in the way of a good story. Bovey's father's claim that he met and accompanied Ernest Shackleton only enhances this work of, and I'll call it what it is - non-fiction. I read a lot of fabulous books. Finding Endurance was one of them. Bravo. Or, as Hugh Laurie would say in Blackadder Goes Forth: Hoorah!
I don't know Darrel Bristol-Bovey, but I have certainly known of him for many years. The way he weaves a beautiful piece of maritime history with the story of his family is brilliant. Knowing what I do of my own family, and the fear I have of writing it down, I would also add that Bovey is courageous. I'd love to talk to him about how he found the courage to do so. Memory is fallable, although many would refuse to admit their own weakness in this department, memory should never get in the way of a good story. Bovey's father's claim that he met and accompanied Ernest Shackleton only enhances this work of, and I'll call it what it is - non-fiction. I read a lot of fabulous books. Finding Endurance was one of them. Bravo. Or, as Hugh Laurie would say in Blackadder Goes Forth: Hoorah!
June 8, 2025
The story of Shackleton's heroic trip to Antartica and the extremes of cold, hunger, thirst and deprivation suffered once The Endurance sank and the team faced tough decisions. (I was thrilled to watch a doccie on how Endurance was recently found. It was striking and clever how the film told the story in parallel streams: one, the retelling of the Shackleton experience; the other, the SA Agulhas team experiencing the hazards of a frozen sea yet with the latest technology eventually finding the remains of the ship.)
Bristow-Bovey writes beautifully and is a consummate storyteller. He weaves into the Shackleton account some key influences from his own childhood and extended family: notably his father, who claimed to have been in Shackleton's team. The author changes voice, topic and perspective often and the effect of this is to relieve the back-story of dogged suffering and impossible odds. His own personal and philosophical musings are moving without becoming sentimental. He puts before the reader that in life there's a finite versus an infinite game of life. Shackleton and the author's father played the infinite game, whereas Scott of the Antarctic played the finite game. I had a lump in my throat throughout. A compelling and compassionate read.
Bristow-Bovey writes beautifully and is a consummate storyteller. He weaves into the Shackleton account some key influences from his own childhood and extended family: notably his father, who claimed to have been in Shackleton's team. The author changes voice, topic and perspective often and the effect of this is to relieve the back-story of dogged suffering and impossible odds. His own personal and philosophical musings are moving without becoming sentimental. He puts before the reader that in life there's a finite versus an infinite game of life. Shackleton and the author's father played the infinite game, whereas Scott of the Antarctic played the finite game. I had a lump in my throat throughout. A compelling and compassionate read.
April 19, 2025
A good book, but not, IMO, a great book.
DBB does a good job of recounting the Shackleton story.
He writes well, invents great words (I think) like 'wombled', manages to make an unlikely pun about Gentoo penguins, and reveals occasional flashes of satire like this one:
"I have spoken to remarkable people before, who have achieved remarkable things in the face of difficulties that would defeat you and me, and one thing is consistent: unless they're American, it's very hard for the to talk about how they do it."
To heighten tension, he leaves the reader hanging at the end of various chapters about Shackleton by inserting tangential chapters he calls "digressions."
The digressions range from discussions on why time flows in one direction to discussions about his father. While these digressions may be significant to him, I found them often tedious. Moreover, the inferences he draws from these digressions are unpersuasive. E.g. he decides his father was - at least in spirit - on Shackleton's expedition, because both men had so many setbacks in their respective journeys and kept going.
Hmm.
So four stars not five.
DBB does a good job of recounting the Shackleton story.
He writes well, invents great words (I think) like 'wombled', manages to make an unlikely pun about Gentoo penguins, and reveals occasional flashes of satire like this one:
"I have spoken to remarkable people before, who have achieved remarkable things in the face of difficulties that would defeat you and me, and one thing is consistent: unless they're American, it's very hard for the to talk about how they do it."
To heighten tension, he leaves the reader hanging at the end of various chapters about Shackleton by inserting tangential chapters he calls "digressions."
The digressions range from discussions on why time flows in one direction to discussions about his father. While these digressions may be significant to him, I found them often tedious. Moreover, the inferences he draws from these digressions are unpersuasive. E.g. he decides his father was - at least in spirit - on Shackleton's expedition, because both men had so many setbacks in their respective journeys and kept going.
Hmm.
So four stars not five.
July 16, 2025
The author is a man you want at a dinner party. He tells a very interesting story very well. The story about Shackleton is what I have in mind. Considerable detail about Shackleton and those with him is easily read and of considerable interest. The parallel tale about the author and is father, initially 'Why this?', soon becomes interesting and integral to the story. All but one of the digressions, that about heat, each titled as mini chapters, equally become an interesting read. The frequent discussion about the differences between pessimism, e.g. Scott, and optimism, e.g. Shackleton, led to critical self-reflection. The fact that this book is a recent publication and some of the discussion is framed by climate change and politics (without being political and directed at a specific country and individuals) itself is interesting. The word 'interesting' has been used five times. The book is ...
July 22, 2023
Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father, and a World Without End by Darrel Bristow-Bovey is as astounding as the Antarctic journey that it describes. It is gripping, entertaining, heartbreaking, but mostly a book that anyone who felt themselves plunged into despair during or after Covid-19 should read. Because this magnificently crafted book expands the shrivelled heart with hope.
Darrel Bristow-Bovey deftly draws all the ropes and pulleys of lives together and shows us how to keep the boat afloat on the treacherous sea of life, and what it takes to make it to shore, and then leave the safety of it again, and again. It is a breathtaking journey. I doubt there will be another book like this for a long time to come.
Darrel Bristow-Bovey deftly draws all the ropes and pulleys of lives together and shows us how to keep the boat afloat on the treacherous sea of life, and what it takes to make it to shore, and then leave the safety of it again, and again. It is a breathtaking journey. I doubt there will be another book like this for a long time to come.
July 22, 2023
I flew through this in a day and a night ahead of the Cape Town book launch. The impending launch and the fact that I knew next to nothing about the adventures of Shackleton saw me paging through it at thriller pace, eager to find out what happens next.
I knew it wasn't doing it justice and agreed with Tom Eaton's summation at the launch of it being a lyrical work, akin to a piece of music in its depth and effect on the reader. I know I'll go back to this one, though, to savour and enjoy the read time and time again. It's just that good.
Here's to hoping Bristow-Bovey is given the scope to continue to create these wonderful books.
I knew it wasn't doing it justice and agreed with Tom Eaton's summation at the launch of it being a lyrical work, akin to a piece of music in its depth and effect on the reader. I know I'll go back to this one, though, to savour and enjoy the read time and time again. It's just that good.
Here's to hoping Bristow-Bovey is given the scope to continue to create these wonderful books.
January 14, 2024
Excellent! This book contains everything from rip roaring adventure, philosophical musings and memoir to spellbinding historical stories and an interesting examination of leadership styles, pessimism and optimism. I found this book absolutely fascinating. My expectations, very high because of all the positive reviews, were well and truly exceeded. The story of Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica comes alive and I actually felt all the emotions this great leader and his men went through as the ill-fated voyage faced one severe challenge after another. Bristow-Bovey's writing made me feel the cold, the frost-bite, the despair and the hope. A truly remarkable book. Highly recommended.
October 22, 2024
Some parts of this book are fantastic, others not so much. Some of the author’s tangents are quite pleasant and playful, some of them even have great insights, but others seem to sway far from the narrative. Some of my favorite tangents include Shackleton’s infinite game, focused on leading and developing a group, and caring for each member of his party. Others drift off towards the authors own family for no good reason other than a loose connection to the hero era explorers and a visit to the modern ship that found the wreck. I listened to and read it but wish I had read more to highlight the many delightful turns of phrase and insightful philosophical tid bits it contains. I’ll likely read more of Shackleton to see where this stacks up.
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