The Birthday Boys

About this book

An alternative cover for this edition can be found here In this novel award-winning author Beryl Bainbridge offers a fictionalized account of the doomed Antarctic expedition led by Captain Scott in 1912. At once hair-raising and beautiful here is an astonishing tale of misguided courage and human endurance. The Birthday Boys of the title are Scott and four members of his team each of whom narrates a section of the book. As the story progresses the reader discovers that these men may not be reliable reporters. Their cocky optimism is both ghastly and dangerous. Brought up to despise professional expertise their enterprise is lunatic amateur and gentlemanly. Beryl Bainbridge makes it hauntingly clear: the men are fatally doomed in their bravery the very stuff of heroes. Captain Scotts poignant trek becomes in this remarkable novel an historical event which prefigures the terrible new world dawning in Europe. It was an inept rehearsal for the carnage of the first world war the ultimate challenge for the arrogant generals who shared Scotts skewed notion of courage that led men qualmlessly into harms way.