PI ，，，I 1 ![ ，i<br > Sinee ehildhood， I have been asked that question. My father<br > Edward， was Ernest Shaekleton s younger son， and 1 canllol<br > remember a time when I was not aware of the part the ~renl<br > white eontinent had played in the life of my family.<br > Photographs hom my grandfather s expeditions hunt， on the waN.，<br > at home: beautiful blael~-and-white images from the early years ol<br > the century. The)， showed a world of snow and ice; bearded men in<br >strange， shapeless garments; a little ship being slowly crushed in the<br >ice， her decline more shocking in each photograph until she is finally<br >only a skeleton of a ship. As a child， I was ahvays particularly fas-<br >einated by one photograph. It showed the husMes (the sled do~s)<br >sitting patiently on the iee beside tim wreck of the ship that had<br >been their home， her end not far away， their future in douht.<br > Ernest Shaekleton died at the start of his third expedition， lie<br >was only 47. My father was nine .5，ears old. He did not have the chance<br >to lmow his father very well (explorers were away for years at a time<br >then)， yet he， too， became an explorer. At the age of 20 he went to<br >Borneo and then to Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.<br >He avoided the Antarctic because he did not want to seem to be<br >trading on his father s name. When I was a little ~4irl，<br >I remember sitting on the coalhouse roof with my brother one day<br >pretending it was a ship. I made him promise that he， too， would<br >explore， to make it three generations. And he did. He took part in<br >an expedition to Devon Island， in the Canadian Arctic.<br > I did get to the iMltaretie， nearly a hundred years after my grand-<br >father， on a naval ship bearing the same name as his ship--<br >Endurance. It was only a small glimpse of the Antarctic he had<br >known， but it was an unforgettable experience. Perhaps after read-<br >ing this excellent book， some of you too will be inspired to visit the<br >great white south in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shaeldeton.<br > i，<br > / ， f : <br > / I 4 i ，<br >