I May Be Some Time

I May Be Some Time

by Francis Spufford (Author)

Synopsis

When Captain Scott died in 1912 on his way back from the South Pole, his story became a myth embedded in the English imagination. Despite wars and social change, despite recent debunking, it is still there. Conventional histories of polar exploration tend to trace the laborious expeditions across the map, dwelling on the proper techniques of ice navigation and sledge travel, rather than asking what the explorers thought they were doing, or why. This book, in contrast, is about the poles as they have been perceived, dreamed of, even desired, and offers a cultural history of a national obsession with polar explorers and mountaineers. It sets out to show how Scott's death in 1912 was the culmination of a long-running national enchantment with perilous journeys to the ends of the earth.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 07 Apr 2003

ISBN 10: 0571218652
ISBN 13: 9780571218653
Book Overview: I May Be Some Time by Francis Spufford explores our perceptions and dreams centring around the North and South Poles, and the myth of Captain Scott's famous last words. Described by Jan Morris in The Times as 'a truly majestic work of scholarship, thought and literary imagination.'

Media Reviews
. . . a high-cultural history, both passionate and intricate . . . Breathtaking. -- The Boston Globe
An engaging, elegant, often majestic work of cultural history. --T he Philadelphia Inquirer
Thoughtful, suggestive and oddly fascinating. -- Men's Journal

. . . a high-cultural history, both passionate and intricate . . . Breathtaking. -- The Boston Globe
An engaging, elegant, often majestic work of cultural history. -- T he Philadelphia Inquirer
Thoughtful, suggestive and oddly fascinating. -- Men's Journal

0;. . . a high-cultural history, both passionate and intricate . . . Breathtaking.1; 2; The Boston Globe
0;An engaging, elegant, often majestic work of cultural history.1; 2;T he Philadelphia Inquirer
0;Thoughtful, suggestive and oddly fascinating.1; 2; Men's Journal

. . . a high-cultural history, both passionate and intricate . . . Breathtaking. - The Boston Globe
An engaging, elegant, often majestic work of cultural history. -T he Philadelphia Inquirer
Thoughtful, suggestive and oddly fascinating. - Men's Journal
Author Bio
Francis Spufford was born in 1964. He is the author of five celebrated books of non-fiction. The most recent, Unapologetic, has been translated into three languages; the one before, Red Plenty, into nine. He has been longlisted or shortlisted for prizes in science writing, historical writing, political writing, theological writing, and writing 'evoking the spirit of place'. His first novel. Golden Hill, was published in 2016 and won the Costa First Novel Award. In 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and lives near Cambridge., Francis Spufford, a former Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year (1997), is the author of five highly-praised books of non-fiction. The first, I May Be Some Time, won three literary prizes, and helped create a small new academic field, dedicated to the cultural history of Antarctica. The second, The Child That Books Built, gave Neil Gaiman 'the peculiar feeling that there was now a book I didn't need to write'. Backroom Boys was called 'as nearly perfect as makes no difference' by the Daily Telegraph; Red Plenty has been translated into nine languages, including Polish, Russian and Estonian; Unapologetic is richer in expletives than any previous work of religious advocacy, and is currently shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. He has also been shortlisted or longlisted for prizes in writing about science, history, politics and 'the spirit of place'. He teaches at Goldsmiths College and lives near Cambridge with his wife and younger daughter. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.