The Birthday Boys

Beryl Bainbridge gets better and better...she has succeeded with a daring leap of emphatic imagination in penetrating the minds of Captain Scott and the four men he led to their deaths in Antarctica in 1912 Patrick Skene Catling, Evening Standard

THE BIRTHDAY BOYS is classic Bainbridge - one of her absolute best. It is a fictional account of Captain Robert Scott s 1910 expedition to Antarctica told from the perspectives of five men on the voyage: Scott; Petty Officer Taff Evans; ship s medic Dr Edward Wilson; Lieutenant Henry Bowers; and Captain Lawrence Oates.

“Bainbridge s account of the horribly familiar story is both fresh and sure-footed. The power of her imagination, her clarity of expression and mastery of language are more striking than anything else I have read this year - Jane Shilling, Sunday TelegraphA beautiful piece of story-telling. Far more accurately than any biography could do, it catches what must have been Scott s hold on his followers - Andro Linklater, SpectatorHer darkest work, equally convincing in tis evocations of the icy, unendurable landscape without, and the chilling interior landscapes of damaged souls - Penny Perrick, Sunday TelegraphShe writes of the hideous deprivations so boldly endured; the astounding beauties of the Antarctic landscapes; the personality clashes; the emotional reticences... It seems to me that Beryl Bainbridge has quite surpassed herself in a completely new imaginative direction - Mary Hope, Financial Times”

Bainbridge s account of the horribly familiar story is both fresh and sure-footed. The power of her imagination, her clarity of expression and mastery of language are more striking than anything else I have read this year - Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph

A beautiful piece of story-telling. Far more accurately than any biography could do, it catches what must have been Scott s hold on his followers - Andro Linklater, Spectator

Her darkest work, equally convincing in tis evocations of the icy, unendurable landscape without, and the chilling interior landscapes of damaged souls - Penny Perrick, Sunday Telegraph

She writes of the hideous deprivations so boldly endured; the astounding beauties of the Antarctic landscapes; the personality clashes; the emotional reticences... It seems to me that Beryl Bainbridge has quite surpassed herself in a completely new imaginative direction - Mary Hope, Financial Times

Beryl Bainbridge is the author of seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays, she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, and has won many literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and the Author of the Year Award at the British Book Awards.

Beryl Bainbridge gets better and better...she has succeeded with a daring leap of emphatic imagination in penetrating the minds of Captain Scott and the four men he led to their deaths in Antarctica in 1912 Patrick Skene Catling, Evening StandardTHE BIRTHDAY BOYS is classic Bainbridge - one of her absolute best. It is a fictional account of Captain Robert Scott s 1910 expedition to Antarctica told from the perspectives of five men on the voyage: Scott; Petty Officer Taff Evans; ship s medic Dr Edward Wilson; Lieutenant Henry Bowers; and Captain Lawrence Oates.

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