A valuable contribution to Antarctic literature, this book provides a well-informed description of the activities of SCAR, the Special, later Scientific, Committee on Antarctic Research, from its creation in 1958 by the International Council of Scientific Unions, since April 1998 the International Council for Science (ICSU) ‘with a view to framing a scientific programme of circum-polar scope and significance’. The decision makers of that time little realised how significant the committee would become or how it would interact with the Antarctic Treaty System when it was created. The first estimation of annual costs was US$ 6000 and the annual contribution for each of the 12 nations then actively engaged in Antarctic research was accordingly US$ 500.

In his Foreword the current President of SCAR, Mahlon ‘Chuck’ Kennicutt II, indicates that: ‘The state of the organization is strong and it is more relevant to the global dialogue than ever before . . .. . .. . .. . .. SCAR has re-established itself as the premier, international organization that facilitates and champions the study and understanding of our planet's southern regions.’ As the preface to the most recent SCAR strategic plan suggests, ‘if not SCAR who?’ In the global dialogue SCAR has a unique position.

For those particularly interested in science there is a chapter entitled ‘The achievements of SCAR’ and an impressive list of almost 100 SCAR publications on: Antarctic biological sciences, earth sciences, glaciology, other symposia, occasional publications, including ‘A history of SCAR’ by C.P. Summerhayes, already published in this journal (Summerhayes Reference Summerhayes2008) and the BIOMASS scientific series.

The index is a rather long index of names. It is to be regretted that there is no science index and although it is possible to get an idea of where the science occurs from ‘The achievements of SCAR’ it would have been useful to have such an index.