Shackleton cover art

Shackleton

Explorer. Leader. Legend.

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Shackleton

By: Ranulph Fiennes
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The enthralling new biography of Ernest Shackleton by the world's greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

To write about Hell, it helps if you have been there.

In 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to traverse the Antarctic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice.

The disaster left Shackleton and his men alone at the frozen South Pole, fighting for their lives.

Their survival and escape is the most famous adventure in history.

Shackleton is an engaging new account of the adventurer, his life and his incredible leadership under the most extreme of circumstances. Written by polar adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who followed in Shackleton's footsteps, he brings his own unique insights to bear on these infamous expeditions. Shackleton is both re-appraisal and a valediction, separating the man from the myth he has become.

Praise for Sir Ranulph Fiennes:

'The World's Greatest Living Explorer' - Guinness Book of Records

'Full of awe-inspiring details of hardship, resolve and weather that defies belief, told by someone of unique authority. No one is more tailor-made to tell [this] story than Sir Ranulph Fiennes' - Newsday

'Fiennes' own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that the men went through' - The Sunday Times

© Ranulph Fiennes 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Earth Sciences Historical Polar Regions Professionals & Academics Science Science & Technology Adventure Leadership

Critic Reviews

An insider's look into a very select club ... Fiennes' personal asides help to explain the unfathomable - such as how and why humans could and, more inexplicably, would persist with moving their tortured bodies across tortured landscapes in such extreme cold ... For anyone with a passion for polar exploration, this is a must read.
THE definitive book on my hero Shackleton and no one could have done it better. "The Boss" would have heartily approved of such an authentic account by one of the few men who truly knows what it's like to challenge Antarctica (Lorraine Kelly)
Fiennes makes a fine guide on voyage into Shackleton's world . . . What makes this book so engaging is the author's own storytelling skills (Lorna Siggins)
With first-hand experience of polar expeditions, Fiennes relates these tales of exploration and survival, adding insight to Shackleton's journeys unlike any other biographer
An insider's look into a very select club . . . Fiennes' personal asides help to explain the unfathomable - such as how and why humans could and, more inexplicably, would persist with moving their tortured bodies across tortured landscapes in such extreme cold . . . For anyone with a passion for polar exploration, this is a must read
Fiennes brings the promised perspective of one who has been there, illuminating Shackleton's actions by comparing them with his own. Beginners to the Heroic Age will enjoy this volume, as will serious polar adventurers seeking advice. For all readers, it's a tremendous story (Sara Wheeler)
Praise for Ranulph Fiennes' Captain Scott
Fiennes' own experiences certainly allow him to write vividly and with empathy of the hell that the men went through.
A valuable corrective to the trend of Scott debunking...One by one, and with the commendable attention to detail, Fiennes explodes the accumulated myths.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes has done Captain Scott's memory some service...he has certainly written a more dispassionate and balanced account than Huntford ever set out to do. (Simon Courtauld)
All stars
Most relevant
Inspiring story with an enough detail, but not too much detail to lose the thread
Really enjoyed the narrator expression

Great narration and a fantastic story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found this to be a gripping work from beginning to end. I’m not sure what impressed me more: Ranulph and the easy with which he delivers this rip-roaring ‘Boys Own’ story, or the shear audacity, tenacity and commitment of Shackleton and his contemporaries.

It is a window into a different age, where the spirit of adventure knew no bounds and dogged determination surmounted incredible odds. And in every twist and turn of fortune it speaks to enviable codes of conduct, trust and loyalty.

Was it folly, or a celebration of human achievement? Does it lay bare a flawed character, or a man of singular vision? Whatever conclusions you reach, there is no denying that they were a breed apart. We learn that few ventures could be regarded as successful in any material way and that every achievement came at a cost; untimely deaths, injured reputations and financial ruin.

Despite his many failings as a responsible family man, Shackleton emerges as a charismatic, beguiling and inspiring leader whose presence, I am sure would light up any dinner table. I see that Ranulph is cut from the same cloth and, for me his personal insights took nothing away from the exploits of his predecessors?

A BREED APART

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It must have been an incredible time to be alive when men like this walked among us mere mortals. Well read and with great voice characterisations, I truly loved this book.
If there were one critique, it is that Ranulph Fiennes probably could have gone easy on the comparisons with his (incredible) feats and Shackleton’s. This is E. SHACKLETONS story alone.
But all in all, one of my favourites bio’s

An amazing tale of a life lived in full

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If there were more than 5 stars I would give it. Bloody brilliant from start too finish.

Engaging author and narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
For want of proper planning & preparation, who knows what Shackleton might have achieved. He was a flawed man in many ways, but remarkable in others. One minute you’re cheering him, the next you want to slap some sense into him.
Very well written & narrated. Fiennes’ asides about his own experiences help give some context to what Shackleton achieved (or didn’t achieve, as the case may be).

Remarkable story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.