At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who dies along with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache of supplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who not only beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largely forgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highly readable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carrying them out.
THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogy of polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject in the English language based on the original Norwegian sources, to which Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.

In 600 wonderfully researched pages ... Huntford has at last written the 3-dimensional book this immense drama deserves * SPECTATOR *
Gripping ...enthralling ...Handles a great mass of material with exceptional intelligence and skill * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
A brilliant achievement, as readable as an adventure story, as fact filled as an explorer's manual, as compelling as history always is when brought to life * TORONTO STAR 'One of the great debunking biographies’ *
NEW YORK TIMES * On December 14, 1911, the classical age of Polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 mi *

Roland Huntford is the former Scandinavian correspondent for the OBSERVER. He is the bestselling author of two critically acclaimed biographies of Ernest Shackleton and Fridtjof Nansen as well as the novel THE SEA OF DARKNESS. He lives near Cambridge.