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DEUTSCHLAND:  AMAZON

WINNER SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR  2013

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 

SHORTLISTED FOR BANFF ADVENTURE TRAVEL PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Ondaatje Prize Judge Margaret Drabble: 

'Worthy to stand beside some of the great travel narratives in the English language'

A Financial Times Books of the Year 2012

Sunday Herald - Books of the Year

Scotsman - Books of the Year

A Sunday Times Travel Book of the Month

National Geographic Best Travel Books of Fall 2013

Published November 2012 in the UK by Chatto & Windus

Published October 2013 in the U.S.A. by Counterpoint Press

Published October 2013 in Germany by Dumont Reiseverlag

Gavin Francis fulfilled a lifetime's ambition when he spent fourteen months as the base-camp 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 very little human history, but also a rare oppurtunity to live among emperor penguins, the only species truly at home in the Antarctic. Following the penguins throughout the year - from a summer of perpetual sunshine to months of winter darkness - Gavin Francis explores a world of great beauty conjured from the simplest 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