True North

'True North... stands alongside Peter Davidson's The Idea of North, and Joanna Kavenna's The Ice Museum, as a significant recent addition to the Arctic canon'-Robert Macfarlane

The Stark, vast beauty of the Arctic Europe landscape has seduced explorers and adventurers for thousands of years. In this striking blend of travel writing, history and mythology, Gavin Francis offers a unique portrait of the northern outposts of Europe.

His journey begins in Shetland and takes him to the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, then Svalbard and on to Lapland. Francis explores the creeping effects of climate change and the impact that modern culture with its 'guns, trucks, pornography and alchohol' has made on fragile and isolated Arctic communities.

As with all the best travel writing, True North is an engaging, compassionate tale of self-discovery, blending historical and contemporary narratives in the tradition of Bruce Chatwin and Robert Macfarlane.