South

South (1999) – Chris Orsman
Faber & Faber | ISBN: 9780571196821
Condition: Good (paperback intact; polar souls lightly frostbitten)
Calmly thawed out by: Crappy Old Books

This is South: An Antarctic Journey, the poetry collection where Chris Orsman decides that Scott’s doomed Terra Nova expedition really needs to be revisited in verse – because apparently the diaries, the photos, and the actual tragic outcome weren’t quite emotionally devastating enough already. 

Across these poems, Orsman tracks Captain Scott & co. from ship to ice to the long white nothing, giving you:

• Motor-sledges that cough and fart in the cold while history tries to look dignified.

• Men hauling sledges across a frozen void, trying not to notice that the void is winning.

• Sublime Antarctic scenery undercut by very human details: dogs, frostbite, bad decisions and the occasional logistical farce.

It’s Scott’s last expedition, but done with line-breaks, irony, and a New Zealand poet’s eye for both grandeur and absurdity. Think: polar elegy meets black comedy, chiselled into clean, crisp stanzas.

What’s inside (besides ice, regret and weather reports)

Orsman turns the whole expedition into a chronological poem-sequence:

• Early arrival at Cape Evans: the ship, the unloading, the sudden realisation that this is a lot of ice and not many exits. 

• The practical business of survival: tents, stores, sledges, and the constant background hum of impending disaster.

• The long march south, with its mix of heroism, stubbornness and “this will absolutely be fine” energy.

• Ghosted glimpses of Scott’s own voice and myth, reworked into something that is both homage and quietly sceptical footnote.

The language is spare, exact, and quietly cinematic – reviewers talk about his “precise imagery of landscape and object”, which is polite shorthand for “you will feel cold reading this.” 

This is not “nature writing” in the cosy sense. This is “the planet does not care about you, but the lines are beautiful” territory.

About this particular copy

Condition is Good, which in the venerable dialect of second-hand book grading means:

• The cover is intact and presentable, with light scuffing or small creases – the sort of wear you get from being read on trains, in cafés, or by someone optimistically planning their own emotionally symbolic polar trip.

• The spine is sound, with maybe a reading crease or two – think of them as contour lines on a very small, cardboard mountain.

• The pages are all present, securely bound, and perfectly readable. You might see some gentle page-tanning, but no catastrophic coffee avalanches, no mysterious tide-marks, and no previous-owner underlinings trying to improve the metre.

In short: solid, respectable Good condition. Not a pristine relic. Not a shredded field manual. Just a very decent copy that has lived a little.

Why you might actually want this

• For the polar obsessive: You know your Shackleton from your Scott, but want the expedition retold with metaphor, enjambment and a touch of ironic bathos.

• For the poetry reader: You like poems that balance big landscapes with small, stubborn, human details – less swan, more sledge.

• For the history nerd with feelings: All the tragic arc of the Terra Nova expedition, but now in a form that can ambush you emotionally in three lines. 

• For the shelf curator: A Faber poetry paperback about Antarctica is basically the apex predator of the “earnest but interesting” section of your bookcase.

Also: this is the collection that later books keep name-checking as “South: An Antarctic Journey” and praising for its clarity and moral weight. Owning it lets you say things like, “Oh yes, I prefer Orsman’s Antarctica” without flinching. 

About Crappy Old Books

At Crappy Old Books, we specialise in volumes that are gently weathered rather than catastrophically wrecked. We won’t tell you this is “as new”; we’ll tell you it’s Good: fully intact, quietly worn, and more than ready for another reader.

So if you fancy a trip with Scott to the end of the world – via taut, ironic, meticulously frosted verse – this Good copy of South by Chris Orsman is standing by.

No specialist gear required.
Emotional chill factor: high.

Keep browsing: See more Poetry books Other books by Chris Orsman