The heartbreak left in the wake of the Terra Nova

The story of the five women waiting at home for Captain Scott and his doomed polar party is naturally occluded in tragedy. In this engaging book Katherine MacInnes for the first time presents them – two mothers at the outset, and three wives – as distinct individuals, separated one from the other by class, education, faith and temperament.

Kathleen Scott, the leader’s wife, was a gifted, confident sculptor with a lively social set and a house on Buckingham Palace Road. Caroline Oates, the widowed mother of the saturnine, Eton-educated cavalry officer Laurie (‘I dislike Scott intensely’), was the wealthy owner of Gestingthorpe Hall in Essex. The Scottish widow Emily Bowers, once a missionary teacher, was devoted to her only son Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, a naval officer and, at 28, the youngest of the polar party. Oriana ‘Ory’ Wilson, a vicar’s daughter, was the devout, childless wife of Edward ‘Bill’ Wilson, head of science on Scott’s team and the most significant confidant the captain ever had.