There are only two books that have a permanent place on this reviewer's desk, as opposed to residing in his bookshelves. These are the late Clive Holland's classic Arctic exploration and development c. 500 b.c. to 1915 (Holland Reference Holland1994) and the present author's Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events (Headland Reference Headland1989) which developed from an earlier compilation prepared by Brian Birley Roberts, and which included 664 entries. These books are indispensable for anyone who takes more than a casual interest in the exploration of the polar regions and most readers of Polar Record will be familiar with both.

The present work is, in effect, a further edition of the author's earlier work. The preparation of a new edition was chosen rather than the publication of a mere addendum to the old one ‘for a variety of reasons’ including ‘changes in the introductory sections, additional entries, revision and improvement. . .and integrity of the index.’ Not only is the time frame extended until 2009, but the opportunity has been taken to present additional and expanded entries for earlier years. While the author estimates that ‘fewer than 10%’ of the entries in the ‘1989 edition have been significantly amended’ the number of new entries amounts to some 1500 which include ‘some . . . minor voyages of discovery’ and ‘several hundred more sealing voyages.’

Those who possess the 1989 edition will immediately feel at home as the list of contents of the new edition is very similar to that of the old. The introductory material has been thoroughly brought up to date and expanded and is extremely useful in its own right as a source of information that may be difficult to find. Should one, for example, desire facts on visits by private yachts to Antarctica there they are on page 57. Or should one need to know how South Africa structures its Antarctic operations, the relevant information will be found on page 42. This process of bringing up to date applies also to the maps which have been thoroughly revised where necessary but those that did not require extensive revision from the earlier edition are still included for example the wonderful map of ‘[p]ositions recorded for the non-existent islands and rocks’ (Map 2) about which one could easily muse for hours.

The main part of each book is, of course, the lists themselves and these cover some 553 pages in 1989 and 554 in 2009. However, the page size in the latter is significantly larger and the gaps between lines and words rather smaller so that a much larger amount of information is presented. The number of entries has increased from 3342 to 4865 and the very last entry is the publication of the present work. Among the 4865 there are details of approximately 5000 expeditions. Looked at another way, the 1000th entry in 1989 was the formal opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, while in 2009 the 1000th entry is a record of a British voyage of the vessel Lord Duncan under Robert George Barton to the Auckland Island colony in 1851, giving a ‘slippage’ of 18 years. The first reference reminds the reader of the somewhat eclectic approach adopted by the author with regard to the selection of entries for the earlier edition and it is pleasing to note that this has been continued in the present one. For example, the invention of the zip fastener is number 1215 in the old edition and this is retained in the new as entry number 1484, with the additional information that ‘velcro’ was invented by the Swiss, Georg de Mestral, in 1948 (entry number 2352). When we come to the 2000th entry we find that in the earlier edition it is the 1950 establishment of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies meteorological service while in the 2009 edition it is the 1926 British Imperial Conference in London, so there is a ‘slippage’ of 24 years. And at the 3000th entry we have the 1980–1981 Argentine expeditions in the 1989 edition and the private US mountaineering expedition of Nicholas Bayard Clinch in 1966–1967 in the present volume giving a ‘slippage’ of 14 years. When we come to the end of the early edition, entry 3342, the eighth special consultative meeting on the Antarctic Treaty held in Paris on 20–22 September 1988, and we compare this with entry 3342 in the new edition we are only at the year 1976–1977, in which took place a Norwegian expedition in a vessel called Polarsirkel. In order to assist cross referencing between the two editions a helpful concordance is provided. From this we learn, for example, that number 3342 in the earlier edition, appears in the 2009 edition as entry number 3858.

The individual entries are as tersely written as in the earlier edition and continue the author's practice of eschewing ‘analytical comment on, and interpretation of, historical events.’ Perhaps this reviewer is imagining it but he envisages the author's jaw as being firmly clenched when he was writing about the Argentine invasion of South Georgia in 1982, an event in which he was, of course, intimately involved, but about which he writes in a manner as free of emotion as he does about expeditions that took place two hundred years before.

The amount of information set out in the book will simply amaze even those who think that they know Antarctic history fairly well. Moreover, the well known episodes do not dominate the book in a way that might be expected. For example Robert Falcon Scott's 1910–1913 expedition (entry 1770) only consumes some third of a page and even in such small scope contains much that is not well known. Which reader of this review can honestly say that he or she knows the other first names of Victor Campbell, who commanded the party of six who wintered in a hut at Cape Adare in 1911 and on Inexpressible Island in 1912? (Lindsay Arbuthnot for those who have been thinking hard. . .) It is when we approach the more recondite and less well known aspects of the subject that our admiration for what the author has been able to achieve magnifies and for this purpose a perusal of the comprehensive index is essential. This comprises no fewer than 84 pages, includes some 13,000 entries to names and subjects and is a source of the first importance. For example if one is interested in Tristan da Cunha, hardly a mainstrean Antarctic territory but, one which reflecting the comprehensive geographical coverage of the book, is nevertheless included, one finds some 200 entries ranging from the discovery by Tristão da Cunha in 1506 (entry 23) to a visit paid by the then governor of St Helena to Gough Island in 1999 (entry 4471). The entries are also arranged in generic topics. For example, there are some 350 wrecks listed, some 70 yacht cruises and 7 entries relating, intriguingly, to marriage.

The question naturally arises concerning the sources that act as the basis for the information set forth. Here the author is quite candid pointing out that while some entries have references attached to them, others do not. The problem is that of the sheer bulk of the volume that would result if all the unpublished sources, to which he has referred, and of which there must have been many thousands, were referenced. He also points out that especially for some of the earlier voyages there is conflict between different records. The author appreciates that this approach might cause ‘inconvenience’ to readers and is in effect asking them to take his work on trust as it were. In view of the nature of the book he is presenting, this reviewer is happy to do so, regarding the entries as distillations of such information as was available to the author either at first or second hand.

There are some 40 plates and one assumes that, as may have been the case in the earlier edition, these were included in order to ‘lighten’ the book somewhat. Several of them reappear from before but many are new and the author must have had an interesting time in making his selection. Particularly entertaining is Plate 13, an Illustrated London News portrayal of the establishment of the British transit of Venus station on Kerguelen in 1874 and showing that ‘man-hauling’ was not confined to the snow and ice. There are 8 histograms, for example of numbers of Antarctic sealing vessels, 1786–1922, and 27 maps.

This is an intimidating book not only from the point of view of the contents but from its appearance. It of A4 size, weighs in at some 2.5 kgs and is a massive compilation in every respect. The author permits himself a note of regret that it is unlikely that there will be another edition of this work since ‘the book’ is ‘succumbing . . . to the internet.’ And in that regard there may be significance in the last page that bears one word Finis. But for the present this handsomely bound, substantial volume should find its place in the library of every institution and individual that is concerned with the topic it covers so comprehensively.