Interesting review by Kevin Rushby in today's Guardian of David Crane's new biography of Scott of the Antarctic, with a number of vignettes of extraordinary, often repellent, characters (Sir Algernon "Pompo" Heneage, Birdie Bowers — 'Thank God we are white and that our parents are pure') who populated the strange world that was then England:
(Crane) captures the weird landscape of Edwardian culture: Peter Pan, spiritualism and bungalow bohemianism all pressed together with duty, deference and patriotism. By the time Scott sails away on his two expeditions, we can only sympathise with the man for having to escape such horrible cultural pack ice before he even gets out of the Thames.
According to Rushby, Crane makes the best case for Scott:
Crane is undoubtedly correct to say that Scott was neither a great explorer like Amundsen, nor a charismatic leader like Shackleton, but what comes through clearly in the description of those last few days is what a good death he had. Forget all the discussion of dogs versus ponies, of the calorie requirements and the motorised sledges - all the myriad little ways in which Scott got it wrong. At the end, in that final personal apocalypse, he got something right that we can all admire, even envy. David Crane has written a fine biography of that Scott, the flawed but timeless hero, and I read it all with pleasure.
