Frozen Frontiers

What drives people to risk everything in the pursuit of exploration? Giles Milton and Ed Armston-Sheret revisit two extraordinary polar expeditions born of Britain’s imperial ambitions: Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s doomed attempt to establish a colony on Wrangel Island in the Arctic; and Britain’s first Antarctic expedition, during which Scott, Shackleton and their crew battled scurvy, starvation and the frozen wilderness in an audacious push further south than any human had gone before.

In conversation with travel writer and polar historian Sara Wheeler, they explore the courage and hubris that characterised the so-called heroic age of polar exploration and the frequently devastating human consequences.