Projects

Shackleton’s Man Goes South, is the title of a novel by author Tony White, that was published by the Science Museum as their Atmosphere commission 2013. White was the Science Museum’s writer in residence in 2008, and received two TippingPoint bursaries to attend events in Oxford and Newcastle upon Tyne.

‘With Shackleton’s Man Goes South, Tony White has written a bold novel-cum-manifesto, a prophecy, satire, and warning, and a gripping polar allegory for the era of global warming and human trafficking.’ Marina Warner

Shackleton’s Man Goes South was inspired by a little known science fiction short story about ‘climate change’ written in 1911 by polar explorer and meteorologist George Clarke Simpson. The novel includes a series of interviews with contemporary climate scientists from the Open University, The Met Office Hadley Centre, British Antarctic Survey and Southampton University.

Shackleton’s Man Goes South was published as a limited edition paperback available exclusively from the Science Museum shop, and as a free ebook in a variety of formats, available on the Science Museum web-site from 24 April to 24 July 2013.

A display about the book runs in the Museum’s Atmosphere Gallery until 24 April 2014. Charting the scientific and literary inspiration behind the novel, the display incorporates a touch-screen from which visitors can email themselves the free ebook until 24 April 2014.

The ‘melting’ Shackleton’s Man Goes South logotype on the cover of White’s novel was created by British designer Jake Tilson. The same logotype frames the Atmosphere Gallery display.

David Gullen reviewing the novel for Arc, the journal of New Scientist wrote:

Part fiction, part historical narrative, part science journalism, Shackleton’s Man Goes South depicts an adventure as magnificent and dreadful as Scott’s or Shackleton’s. Commissioned by the Science Museum as part of a five-year programme of contemporary art on the subject of climate, this is a book about going forwards by going back. Characters in the future echo those from the past; as clues from fossils and ice cores tell us about a warmer past, and hint at the future.

In that future, the climate refugee Emily flees south to supposed safety in the company of the complex and conflicted human trafficker Browning. Meanwhile, White skilfully conducts a parallel journey through conversations and interviews with contemporary scientists, and delves into the documentation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The cyclic nature of climate reveals that what has come before can come again. The world of the future, Emily’s world, depends on what happens in the present. Get this wrong and we’re all going South.

Read the whole review here.