Your first book is The First Crossing of Greenland, by Nobel Peace Prize winner Fridtjof Nansen.

The reason I chose this book is that it was the beginning of modern polar exploration. Nansen devised a technique using skis, and – by devising specialised equipment – particularly the broad-runnered sledge. The main point was that by the application of technology, and by abandoning any kind of emotion, he demythologised polar exploration. The other side of that coin is that he came from a society which has an affinity with nature. Paradoxically, because of living so close to nature he demythologised the whole polar environment by accepting her dictates. That was the start of modern polar exploration. The first crossing of Greenland was one of the factitious goals that marked the end of terrestrial exploration before the leap into space.

Presumably he did cross Greenland?

Yes he did, in 1888. It was the first of the great polar goals ever to be achieved. People had been trying to do this since the Middle Ages. And this is that story.

Who did he go with?

He went with a man called Otto Sverdrup, who was a seaman and a skier. And he had two Laplanders with him because it was felt that the Laps, apart from being great skiers, had an ancient tradition there too and knew how to find their way in the snow. He also had a military officer, Oluf Christian Dietrichson, and finally a peasant from central Norway called Kristian Kristiansen. They were six all together. They were all skiers first and explorers second.

Did they all survive?

Oh yes. They not only survived, they got across with the minimum of trouble. They all came from a tradition where it wasn’t clever to suffer. Suffering was a sign of incompetence. There was no point in punishing yourself – you had to do it in such a way that you have some fun. And there is nothing that is worth the sacrifice of the tip of a little finger. They got across with very little physical or mental harm.

Farthest North is a very different story, I think.

Yes. Nansen wanted to reach the North Pole but there had been many attempts ending in disaster, so instead of fighting nature he figured he’d work with her. Because of some driftwood and relics found in Greenland, he worked out that there must be a current running from Siberia to Greenland. It looked as if that current passed over, or close to, the North Pole. So he had a special ship built called Fram – which means “forward” – which was specially designed to be frozen into ice without being nicked, and he was going to exploit this current.

He sailed along the coast of Siberia, deliberately froze her into the ice and let the drift carry her along. He was right – there was a current – but it soon became clear that she was not going to reach the Pole. So taking one companion, dogs and sledges, he tried to reach the North Pole over the ice. He didn’t get very far, only within about 250 miles of the Pole before he turned back and made his way across the drift ice. He landed on Franz Josef Land and spent the whole winter in a hut like a northern Robinson Crusoe. His life was saved because an English explorer called Frederick George Jackson just happened to be there at the same time, and Nansen returned home in Jackson’s expedition ship.

Fram left in 1893 and returned in 1896 when Nansen also returned. By making that attempt on the Pole he hardly got any further than he would have had he remained on the ship. His record was 86 degrees and 14 minutes [latitude]. The reason I chose this book is because Nansen was an intellectual explorer, and he brought all his men home safe and sound. This is a bit of a record given the history of disaster in polar exploration. It’s also interesting how people from a certain background were able to survive the isolation of three years in the ice, seeing the same faces day after day.

What background?

They were all Norwegians. Scandinavians have an ability to live in their thoughts. If they don’t like their surroundings they retreat into themselves and live in a make-believe world. In this expedition there was a doctor, a couple of naval officers, sealers, sailors and drifters.

English explorers tend to be aristocrats, but these are the opposite aren’t they? They’re already tough?

They come from a society that is meritocratic – where you don’t have class in our sense – and they would all approximate to our middle classes, but their roots are in the soil or on the seas. Most of the people on Fram were seamen from the age of sail, and there they had to learn to survive in cramped and difficult conditions. It’s the art of surviving in a small group. Unlike our [British] explorers nobody there was looking for adventure, they were looking for accomplishment. It’s part of the Norwegian character going back to the sagas – great admiration for conspicuous achievement. Nansen took skis and dogs with him, and he made a momentous discovery on the Fram expedition. He discovered that the natural speed of a team of dogs in front of a loaded sledge is the same as that of Nordic or cross-country idling, not racing. This was momentous because it was the origination of the Norwegian – ie the modern – form of polar travel, before the advent of motorised transport.