A fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the race between Dr Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary to be the first to reach the South Pole.
On January 21, 1958, Sir Vivian (then Dr) Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary met at the South Pole amid a worldwide blaze of controversy. It was the half way point of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition's first successful crossing of the Frozen Continent - but Hillary and his team, driving modified farm tractors, had made a 'hellbent dash to the Pole' (Hillary's words) five weeks earlier, pipping Fuchs and his team in their more sophisticated Snocats.
Geoffrey Lee Martin was covering the infamous expedition for The Daily Telegraph and The New Zealand Herald and had unfettered access to its participants and personalities. The passage of time allows him to give a much more lively and informal insight into the personal relationships and conflicts, as well as post-colonial rivalry, than was possible at the time.
