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Start giftingA Polar Affair
Antarctica’s Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins
Narrator
Raphael Corkhill
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Length
13 hours 8 minutes
Language
English
A captivating blend of true adventure and natural history by one of today’s leading penguin experts and Antarctic explorers
George Murray Levick was the physician on Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic Antarctic expedition of 1910. Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close. His findings were so shocking to Victorian morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history.
A century later, Lloyd Spencer Davis rediscovers Levick and his findings during the course of his own scientific adventures in Antarctica. Levick’s long-suppressed manuscript reveals not only an incredible survival story, but one that will change our understanding of an entire species.
A Polar Affair reveals the last untold tale from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. It is perhaps the greatest of all of those stories—but why was it hidden to begin with? The ever-fascinating and charming penguin holds the key. Moving deftly between both Levick’s and Davis’s explorations, observations, and comparisons in biology over the course of a century, A Polar Affair reveals cutting-edge findings about ornithology, in which the sex lives of penguins are the jumping-off point for major new insights into the underpinnings of evolutionary biology itself.
Lloyd Spencer Davis received the New Zealand PEN Best First Book Award for Nonfiction for Penguin: A Season in the Life of the Adelie Penguin. He is the author of Looking For Darwin, which won the CLL Writer’s Award, New Zealand’s most significant nonfiction award. He has been a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, an Anzac Fellowship, and a Prince and Princess of Wales Science Award.
Raphael Corkhill is an award-winning stage, screen and voice actor. Born and raised in the UK, Raphael graduated from Princeton University then gained his MFA in acting from the University of Southern California. Raphael’s film and television credits include the Warner Bros. feature The Goldfinch, independent TV pilot Manny, and Burning at Both Ends alongside Cary Elwes. His extensive voice credits include billion-dollar video game franchises: Uncharted 4 (BAFTA “Best Game” winner), The Elder Scrolls Online and Titanfall 2, as well as the recent blockbuster ESO: Morrowind. Raphael has narrated numerous titles for Macmillan including The Fallon Trilogy and his audiobook performances have been described by Publisher’s Weekly as “terrific.”
Reviews
“A rip-roaring read on research at the edge.”
“Fascinating….Insightful…A timely illumination of a mysterious and vital ecosystem.”
“A gonzo-journalistic retelling of the Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century. The climax of what might otherwise have been routine field work is a harrowing trek…intercut with evolutionary insights Davis gleaned from his own observations. A welcome look behind the scenes, representing Levick as a brilliant explorer and a keen observer of nature.”
“Victorian morals, the sex lives of penguins, and Antarctic exploration combine in this unusual natural history and travelogue.”
“Davis serves it all up with wit and a wry, irrepressible sense of humor, while imparting everything there is to know about penguins.”
“Davis combines history and science seamlessly.”
“A tremendous resource.”
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