The Unforgiving Minute (Tim Jarvis, Bantam, $32.95 tpb, ISBN 186325434X, August) *****

This is not the kind of book I normally read. But I surprised myself by not just enjoying it, nor simply getting up early on the weekend to read it, but even catching public transport to work (rather than riding my bike) to finish it. Tim Jarvis' tale of the fastest-ever unassisted overland trip to the South Pole, and his subsequent assault on the North, is gripping, as is his writing: sparse, direct, immediate. The story of how he fell into adventuring moves at a cracking pace: from ex-pat Boy Scout childhood to a sort of 'sportsman in search of a goal.' The granular detail of his polar expeditions-the taste of cereal laced with olive oil, the feel (or lack thereof) of frostbite, the process of evacuation (and the speed with which one does it)-is fascinating. Equally fascinating is his personal story: who sets themselves these kinds of challenges? And why? Many readers will want to know more about the man behind the missions, and I, for one, was hanging for more insight into his relationships-both with girlfriends and fellow adventurer Peter Treseder, but I suspect that that circumspection is in itself an essential part of his character.

Rose Michael is AB&P's editor

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2004, Thorpe-Bowker