Shackleton is Roland Huntford’s biography of Sir Ernest Shackleton; Anglo-Irish polar adventurer extraordinaire. Whilst in many ways an embodiment of the new type of Edwardian hero, Shackleton was by turns both a colleague & an adversary of Captain Scott, who undertook four Antarctic expeditions, three under his own leadership. Shackleton was a social adventurer: the appeal of the frozen wastes held no sway for him per se, but the pursuit of wealth, fame & power did. At his height he was feted as a national hero, knighted by Edward VII & granted £20, 000 by government. His expeditions, particularly the sensational Endurance expedition of 1914-1917, became the stuff of legend, yet Shackleton was poverty stricken at the end of the Second World War & died a somewhat haunted & lonely, if apt, death in the Southern Ocean at the age of 47. It’s Shackleton’s ‘flame of leadership’ & sense of going out & forcing life to give you what you crave from it that resonates with the present day. Huntford’s biography is a great adventure story, suffused with the spirit of an Edwardian giant.