Antarctica A Biography

Like Captain James Cook, I have been slowly circling the Antarctic. While labouring on other books, the ice-covered continent kept looming into view like an alluring mirage, suggesting itself as a subject worthy of closer exploration. The chance to do so came after I completed Conquest: How societies overwhelm others (2008), which examined how so-called 'supplanting societies' claim territories and make them their own over an extended period of time. It was a new way of looking at the history of the world.