Festival Event: Michael Smith - Towards the Coldest Place: the Long March to the South Pole

Best-selling author Michael Smith chronicles the 2,000 year quest to stand at the South Pole, starting with the ancient Greek scholars and reaching a dramatic climax with the triumph and tragedy of the race between Captain Scott and the Norwegian Amundsen.

Smith recounts the epic struggles and appalling hardship, generations of colourful characters and the soaring ambition of explorers who battled the frozen wastes to be first to stand at the end of the earth.MICHAEL SMITH is a best-selling author whose about Antarctic and Arctic exploration have sold over 300,000 copies across the world, have been translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Irish and assisted with the development of film dramas and documentaries.

Michael's books include: Shackleton - By Endurance We Conquer; An Unsung Hero - Tom Crean; I Am Just Going Outside - Captain Oates; Icebound in the Arctic - The Mysteries of Captain Francis Crozier and the Franklin Expedition.

For children: Iceman - Tom Crean; The Boss - Shackleton; Tom Crean - Irish Antarctic Hero.Michael has appeared on TV and radio and spoken at many literary festivals and leading venues including: The Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace, Royal Geographical Society, National Maritime Museum, National Library of Ireland, National Museum of Ireland, Royal Society of Irish Antiquarians, Princess Grace Memorial Library Monaco, Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Dundee Heritage Trust-Discovery Museum, Irish Cultural Centre; Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge.

Michael Smith is a former award-winning journalist with The Guardian and The Observer.