Author(s): Stephen Bown

General

One hundred years have passed since Robert Falcon Scott’s beleagured expeditionary team arrived at the South Pole, only to find that they had been beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. The most feted explorer of his generation, Amundsen counted the discovery of the Northwest Passage, in 1905, as well as the North Pole amongst his greatest achievements. However, until now, his story has rarely featured as more than a footnote to Scott’s tragic failure. The Last Viking is the life of a visionary and a showman, who brought the era of Shackleton to an end, put the newly independent Norway on the map and was the twentieth century’s brightest trailblazing explorer.