Friday 6 July 2012

Airship over the Pole by Garry Hogg: Post, Postscript Musings.

I was given my ex-public library copy of Airship over the Pole as a birthday gift some years ago.
I can't say I'm a fan of the Arctic/Antarctic exploration literature it was more the airship angle that interested me.

On first reading the book it struck me how much like a Hooting Yard story it seemed and how quickly one catastrophe can snowball into a catalogue of disasters.

Though I enjoyed the story I felt the telling of it was a bit 'vanilla' and started to do a bit of interweb digging as, prior to receiving the book, I'd never heard anything about this adventure.

I found Malmgren's two post crash suicide attempts had been left out of the story and I can't help wondering about his motivation to set out on, what seemed to me,  a hair-brained scheme to trek across the ice to get help.
Bit of a death-wish me thinks.

The shruggy shouldered attitude of the support vessel captain also seemed odd to me.
I'm really glad the little doggy made it out, but contrast it's good fortune with the fate of the huskies used by the sledge party.

I've posted all the photos included in the book on my Flickr page here:
Airship over the Pole in Pictures

I don't think I'll be typing out another complete book anytime soon.

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