Mawson by Peter Fitzsimons

Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shakleton and Amundsen

First published in 2011, Mawson is a typically big Peter Fitzsimons history book (736 pages).

As Fitzsimons states in his introduction, this book was planned to be a biography of Mawson, but he soon found that it was difficult to tell his story in isolation of the other great Antarctic explorers Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton. All the expeditions overlapped in timing and the short chapters flit from one expedition to the other, day by day, as they develop. I found this way of writing a bit frustrating at first but, once I got used to it, it was fine. I remember he wrote Kokoda in a similar style, focusing on certain main characters and following their fortunes throughout the extended New Guinea WWII campaign. 

All us older Australians were taught about Sir Douglas Mawson's antarctic explorations during our school days and he is still generally regarded as one of Australia's greatest explorers and our greatest ever polar explorer. In fact, he was the driving force which led to Australia being granted custodianship of the large swathe of Antarctica directly south of our continent.

The book is an exciting one which covers the period from 1902 to 1916. Once I got into it, I could hardly put it down and finished it in a couple of weeks in November 2018.

Fitzsimons is a very thoroughly researched historian but his real forte lies in his storytelling, whereby he makes his subject come alive, stirring our imaginations with his in depth analysis of the characters and the intertwining activities that make up the story. He does not pull punches re the many stupid decisions that doomed Scott's last trip to ultimate failure. Decisions were taken based on the concept of the English Gentleman rather than on a pragmatic view of what would work best. Worse, Scott seemed unable to go back on his decisions, even when he knew they were wrong. Scott might have been lionised at the time as the ultimate tragic but heroic explorer, but now we see him more clearly for the flawed expedition leader that he was. Comparing his trip with Amundsen's is telling.

One of the things the book brings out most vividly is the absolute awefulness of Antarctica. The wind, the snow, the ice, the cravasses, the temperatures, the frost bite, the inaccessability. All of it is brought to life. Before the days of planes and motorised vehicles, it was all done on foot or sled, normally in atrocious conditions. 

Mawson stands out as the most clear headed of the explorers, the least likely to make mistakes, the most fastidious in his planning and the most scientific and far sighted in his bent. I agree with Fitzsimmons that he was the greatest of the Antarctic explorers, but then I am an Australian so I might be biased. 

I love reading Peter Fitzsimons' books. At home in the library I have

Kokoda (2010)

Mawson (2011)

Batavia (2012)

Ned Kelly (2013)

I must read Tobruk, along with some of his WWI books.