1912 was an unbelievable yr, marking the elevation from the Heroic Age of Exploration. Fascination with Antarctica was at fever pitch, and between 1910 and 1914 five groups of intrepid explorers embarked on the greatest race from the era, to visit beyond the edges of the known world and conquer this last great frontier.

Pitted against one another had been Captain Robert Falcon Scott for Britain, Roald Amundsen for Norway, Sir Douglas Mawson for Australasia, Wilhelm Filchner for Germany and Nobu Shirase for about 1912: THE ENTIRE YEAR the World Discovered Antarctica Japan. ‘Conquest of the South Pole!’ trumpeted the world’s newspapers in March 1912. Amundsen got received. But behind all of the headlines, there is a much bigger story.

The exploits of these larger-than-life explorers, often narrated in their own words, thrilled and enthralled the world; the limits of our world were pushed all the way south Pole and the door to Antarctica flung wide open. Drawing by himself polar encounters, Chris Turney reveals why 1912 witnessed the dawn of a new age inside our knowledge of the natural world. The stories of endurance, self-sacrifice and technological innovation that marked 1912 laid the building blocks for modern scientific exploration and also have continued to inspire future generations.

1912 can be an awe-inspiring journey – part nail-biting adventure, part scientific background – through an old and fascinating land.

Includes a PDF of photographs from these Antarctic expeditions.