ANOTHER tale of heroism that’s been told many times: Scott in Antarctica, 1912. But the story of the ill-fated mission to the South Pole is here presented as a novel – and very effective too. Situations, thoughts and conversations are invented around the known facts. For instance, Scott talks with medical officer Bill Wilson about Lawrence Oates, scarcely able to drag himself through the snow.

“His nose is frost-bitten.”

“I saw.”

“Poor Soldier. He knows he’s a hindrance.”

“He asked me what his chances are this morning.”

“What did you say?

Wilson couldn’t speak for a while, his wind gone. When his breath returned he said: “I told him I didn’t know. That it was in God’s hands.

But he knows the truth. As we all do.”

And we all know what happened.