Birthday Boys

Beryl Bainbridge is not a novelist I often read, in spite of her obvious quality, and even though I read An Awfully Big Adventure with great delight when it came out.  But Sara Wheeler mentioned her book about the Scott expedition several times in her book on Antarctica, and I determined to read it.  The Birthday Boys is well worth seeking out; it’s small but perfectly formed.  In fewer than 200 pages, she tells the story of the Scott expedition all the way from the UK and the voyage south, to the Pole and disaster.  She does this in five episodes, temporally distinct, and each narrated by a different member of the team – Taff Evans, scientist Edward Wilson, Scott himself, Birdie Bowers, who hardly felt the cold, and ‘Titus’ Oates.

She captures brilliantly the foibles and strengths of each, and has a wealth of learning lightly worn to illustrate their role in the human drama they enacted; each sheds light on himself, and on the others.  ‘Taff’ Evans is a hero to himself and Scott, but unloved by the others, and Birdie and Scott himself both rouse very real ambivalence in other members of the party.  You cannot read much about Antarctica without feeling pressure to take sides between Scott and Shackleton  - Scott the heroic failure, who came second in the race to the Pole he affected to despise and failed to get himself or his team home; Shackleton, whose explorations did not get him near the Pole or across the continent as he dreamed, but whose concern for his men and whose brilliant leadership and physical and mental resilience kept every single man alive.  Me, I’m a Shackleton man: the trip across the ocean in an open boat, and the crossing of the South Georgia mountains, is one of the great achievements – and I cannot forgive Scott his decision to rely on ponies and tractors, not dogs, against all advice, to add an extra man to the Pole party when the logistics – already stretched enough – were designed for four.  He was, no doubt, by the standards of his time, a great man, and his wish for his brilliant son  – “Make the boy interested in natural history; it is better than games” – bore remarkable fruit.

But back to the novel!  The five voices are all subtly different, and each contributes to your understanding of the others, and of the party as a whole.  In particular, Scott himself and Birdie Bowers become etched clearly – though I cannot really tell how fairly – Scott declining in esteem as the whole picture becomes available, and Bowers – rather criticised by the first narrator, Taff Evans - growing in stature all the time.  I enjoyed this aspect of the book, but two other characters were also very attractive – Wilson the scholar (Uncle Bill), and Apsley Cherry-Garrard (a minor figure in this book, but the subject of a whole book, much admired, by Sara Wheeler – Cherry). 

 

There is inevitably much description of hardship and the cold, but also much of the stoical and understated way in which these extraordinary men approached the task – especially their self deprecation and humour.  A highlight is the description – in the voice of Lt Birdie Bowers – of the expedition by three men (himself, Wilson and Cherry) to the rookery of the Emperor penguins, a tale of hardship, sacrifice and discomfort that can hardly be imagined – and all not in self preservation, or for glory, or the search for a Grail, but a desire to collect – for good scientific reasons – the eggs of this remarkable bird (which was wrongly thought at the time to be particularly primitive and therefore something of a link between reptiles and birds)!  (The penguins in the picture are king penguins - I didn't get anywhere near an emperor!) The other passage which deserves particular note – mainly because it was touching when I had feared it might be maudlin or ridiculous – was Oates’ tragic and heroic end; the last words of his tale are the last in the book: “And, oh, how warm it was.”

A wonderful novel in its own right – well worth reading, with or without an interest in Antarctica.

Comments

[gavin]

A wonderful post. I have put The Birthday Boys on hold at my local library. The book by Cherry-Garrard is called "The Worst Journey In The World" and, by his account, it was!

[glo]

That picture of the icebergs is amazing. And not only because of their shape - they somehow look like modern buildings - but also because of their bluish colour. I guess, it must be the reflection of the sea - or is it the sky? - on the ice faces.
Maybe Dark Puss can confirm that... if he wants to miaow to me too...

For more penguins, I recommend you these pictures that I watch and re-watch:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/4539344/Emperor-penguins-in-western-Antarctica.html
Both freezing and scaring, isn't it? And did you see the film "The March of the Emperor"?

Well, Penguinsdofurnisharoom would be an appropriate name, given that Penguin Books is a famous publisher. And to be exact, it should be Penguinsdofurnisharoomandablog!

[Dark Puss]

I like the birds! I'm sorry that Cornflower is not so much of an enthusiast. Saw a new species for me (Common Stork) this week while being driven to CERN by my friend Ms F. Very exciting, as was seeing two Crested Tit on her bird table (you have to wander the forests of the Cairngorms to get a glimpse of these wee beasts in Britain).

Miaow to both of you from your favourite (?) cat

[Cornflower]

The book sounds fascinating - as is the whole subject - and I shall look for it. The photographs are great, but what is this tendency I am noticing? Have you quietly become Birdsdofurnisharoom while I wasn't looking? The penguins are alright, but the skuas (and that gull down below) are the stuff of Hitchcockian nightmares. (I'm writing this comment while hiding behind the settee).