The Birthday Boys

A haunting and incisive group portrait of the crewmembers aboard Captain Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition.

They set off from Cardiff in 1910, racing to plant the first flag in the South Pole: the burly Petty Officer Taff Evans; the introspective scientist Edward Wilson; the sanguine Lieutenant Birdie Bowers; the brooding Captain Lawrence Oates; and their tragic, conflicted leader, Captain Scott. As each man narrates his own version of events, perspectives fracture, and the misguided courage and reckless optimism that characterised the voyage are thrown into stark relief.

One of Beryl Bainbridge's most acclaimed novels, The Birthday Boys evokes not only the terrible beauty of the Antarctic and the remarkable bravery of its explorers, but also the imperial hubris of late Edwardian society at the dawn of the twentieth century.