Shackleton’s Critic
As the heroic age of exploration draws to a close, a new book tells the story of one of the heroes involved – one who is little known and scarcely recognised today.
Eric Marshall, under the leadership of Ernest Shackleton, staggered to within 97 miles of the South Pole on the 1907 – 1909 Nimrod Expedition. When they ultimately headed for home, mission unaccomplished, it was Marshall’s heroics that prevented the journey from becoming a death march. He subsequently survived a harrowing expedition in Dutch New Guinea but fame and fortune eluded him. Increasingly embittered, he turned his resentment towards family, friends and above all Shackleton, becoming in time Sir Ernest’s fiercest critic.
This fascinating story of Marshall’s life, by Angie Butler and Beau Riffenburgh, brings a new insight into the trials these heroic Edwardians endured, and which affected them for ever.
Marshall’s nonagenarian daughter, Dawn Beal, has read the book: ‘I feel so privileged to be the first recipient. It’s a beautiful book. It brings me good and bad memories of my father’.