According to Apsley Cherry-Garrard, one of the men who travelled to Antarctica with Captain Scott, 'Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.' Despite this there has never been a shortage of volunteers willing to endure the bad times in pursuit of the glory that polar exploration sometimes brings. James Tyrell, recounts the memorable stories of those who have risked their lives by entering the white wastelands of the Arctic and the Antarctic, from the compelling tales of Scott, Shackleton and franklin to lesser known heroes such as Elisha Kane and Douglas Mawson. An introduction to: Polar Exploration also looks at the hold that the polar regions have had on the imaginations of artists and writers in the last two hundred years, examining the paintings, films and literature that they have inspired