CHILLING READS
Books to Cool You Down
My late father always preferred cold temperatures to warm ones, a preference my son has inherited. To chime with his preference, Dad also had an abiding interest in polar exploration and I inherited the small library of books he collected on the subject. It includes such chilling classics of the genre as “The Worst Journey in the World” by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, “Alone” by Admiral Richard E Byrd, and “South” by Ernest Shackleton.
With the ongoing heatwave and parlous news of raging fires, I have found myself returning to Dad’s icy library and wondering which Non-Fiction books from my own might have the potential to cool us down, and transport us to frostier worlds as the mercury rises again.
Here are a few suggestions, pulled from the chillier reaches of my bookshelves, along with one forthcoming gem of a snowy read. My selection is pretty penguin-heavy….but is that ever a bad thing?
“Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica” by Sara Wheeler
The Ancient Greeks sensed the presence of Antarctica as a place to balance out the white bit at the top of the globe but even today, few people have ever been there. This classic of contemporary travel writing charts the seven months Wheeler spent in Antarctica and provides a rich and riveting meditation on the mythology, landscape and history of the continent, as well as the characterful cast of modern-day residents who call it home.
“The Little Book of Snowflakes” by Kenneth Libbrecht
I was sent this wondrous gem of an illustrated book by a publisher about twenty years ago and have dipped into it occasionally ever since. It contains magnified photographs of freshly fallen snowflakes, captured using a special photo-microscope in all their rich, crystalline beauty. The US physics professor author grew up on a farm near Fargo, North Dakota where his childhood experience of cold winters led to a lifelong fascination with snowflakes.
“Frostlines” by Neil Shea
National Geographic writer Neil Shea has been reporting from the Arctic for twenty years. His magical debut book was sparked not by an assignment however, but by an otherworldy encounter with a family of wolves on Ellesmere Island in northern Canada and with one white wolf in particular which stared him down. From dwindling herds of caribou to rising tensions along the border between Norway and Russia, it’s a beautiful yet concerning portrait of a transforming region of the world everyone in more southern latitudes must urgently wake up to.
“The Ghost of the Mountains: Unravelling the Secrets of the Snow Leopard” by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi
(out in August 2026 - photo to come)
For more than twenty years, Indian scientist, conservationist and mountaineer Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi has studied snow leopards across the highest reaches of the Himalaya. These rarely seen and exquisitely beautiful creatures face increasing challenges, their survival dependent on a delicate balance of landscape, climate and people. Charting the author’s fascinating field work and weaving elements of memoir throughout, this enchanting book sheds thrilling light on these charismatic and vulnerable animals, making a compelling and urgent case for their conservation.
“Emperor Antarctica: Ice, Silence and Emperor Penguins” by Gavin Francis
Having spent years yearning to go the remotest place on earth, Gavin Francis jumped at the opportunity to spend 14 months as the base-camp doctor at Halley, an isolated British research station on the Caird Coast of Antarctica. In this wonderfully engaging travelogue he eloquently portrays the strange moods and manners of Antarctic living; the silence, the solitude and the consolations of being neighbour to a community of emperor penguins.