ENDURANCE

This novel tells the story of a real-life hero, photographer, explorer and adventurer Frank Hurley, who visited Antarctica six times including the famous expedition lead by Sir Ernest Shackleton. It is a story told through his eyes and in his words, and it reveals a tantalising portrait of the man behind the legend.

Endurance tells us of Hurley’s part in Shackleton’s 1914, ill-fated Endurance expedition—one of the most famous expeditions in Antarctic history. It recounts tales of great heroism and suffering as Hurley fights for his life among the ice and the elements, and witnesses the worst ravages of war on the Western Front. Hurley’s iconic images of the Endurance trapped in an ocean of ice, of men battling the most extreme elements in the Antarctic, and suffering under unthinkable conditions in the two World Wars are imprinted on our conciousness. His images have been so widely exhibited and reproduced that in many cases they are the principal means by which we have come to see those world-shattering events. Written using Hurley’s incredibly thorough and lively diaries, this imaginative account is woven seamlessly around the known facts of Hurley’s life. Endurance is an extraordinary debut novel, a rollicking white-knuckle adventure story that also takes us to the very heart of heroism and sacrifice. TIM GRIFFITHS is a partner at HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, specialising in Insurance, Litigation and Dispute Resolution. He lives in Sydney. Endurance is his first novel.