Tower and Town, September 2022 (view the full edition)Katherine MacInnes - Snow Widows
But what of those who waved off their menfolk and were waiting anxiously for their return? In Snow Widows: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition Through the Eyes of the Women They Left Behind, Katherine MacInnes thrillingly recreates the stories of five female relatives of the polar party in the months before and after the men's tragic deaths: Kathleen Scott, a sculptor of national renown and the free-spirited, free-thinking wife of the expedition leader; Oriana Wilson, scientist and much-loved wife of the team doctor; Emily Bowers, patriotic mother of Birdie; Caroline Oates, whose son famously sacrificed himself; and Lois Evans, wife of Taff, a working-class woman struggling to feed her three children. Written in the form of diary entries, MacInnes reconstructs the actions, thoughts and emotions of the five women as the polar drama plays out, thousands of miles away, in agonisingly slow motion, all against a backdrop of a vanishing Edwardian Britain marching inexorably to war. Ben Tarring |
The story is seared into the British consciousness: how Captain Scott and his intrepid companions made their final, fatal trip to the Antarctic in 1911/12. Beaten to the South Pole by Amundsen, they struggled - injured, malnourished, pulling their own sledges - back towards base camp, only to die just a few miles short.