In an interview on The Polar Regions

What is your first choice about?

It is ostensibly the story of Captain Scott’s 1912 expedition to the Antarctic, but it’s really about all places in all times and is possibly the best book ever written. Cherry – as he was known – was on the expedition and the book has been in print since 1922. It started out as the official story of the expedition but became the unofficial story as he elevated it to the universal. The actual worst journey is a little side journey to collect the eggs of the emperor penguins, and he writes about the absence of people and the spiritual dimension of that, describing the endeavour as not just as his endeavour but as all endeavours, whether it is building a shed or a fence, going on any journey, putting down your last glass. For him, Scott didn’t really fail and I suppose he had to think that. He came back and three of his friends had died, the war had happened while he was away, the world had changed, for the worse, and his big act of redemption was writing this book.

None of the current books you read about journeys are about the journey being worth it in itself, any journey. It’s a masterpiece and definitely part of what inspired me to go to Antarctica. It is a deeply inspiring book in which he tries to redeem something from the journey. The last line is: “If you march your winter journeys you’ll have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”

In an interview on Travel

This is ostensibly the story of Captain Scott’s 1912 expedition to the Antarctic, but it’s really about all places at all times and is possibly the best book ever written. Cherry – as he was known – was on the expedition, and the book has been in print since 1922. For him, Scott didn’t really fail, and I suppose he had to think that. When he came back, three of his friends had died, the war had happened while he was away, the world had changed for the worse, and his big act of redemption was writing this book.

It started out as the official story of the expedition but became the unofficial story as he elevated it to the universal. The actual “worst journey in the world” was a side journey to collect the eggs of the emperor penguins. He writes about the absence of people and the spiritual dimension of that, describing the endeavour as not just his but as all endeavours – whether it is building a shed or fence, going on any journey, or putting down your last glass.

None of the current books you read about journeys are about the journey being worth it in itself. But this is a masterpiece, and was definitely part of what inspired me to go to Antarctica myself. It is a deeply inspiring book in which he tries to redeem something from the journey. The last line is: “If you march your winter journeys you’ll have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.”

What is the effect on the human spirit of being in the Antarctic? I would have thought being so alone would make you depressed.

No, it doesn’t. It takes you outside your normal existence and sets you loose from your spiritual moorings. Everywhere in the Antarctic is like that, and in the Arctic you feel it when you get away from the settlements. The polar regions are very uplifting – a different place, a better place. They are very compelling. People keep going back once they’ve been.

I spent seven months in Antarctica and I can’t keep going back there because it’s so hard to get to, but I do go back to the Arctic. Antarctica is easily definable – a continent – and it is not owned, which is very important. The Arctic is owned and fucked up, and the people have been fucked over by successive regimes.

Dan Morrison talks about: