Most of the new research Neville Peat has done was on the whisky itself and its unusual history and rediscovery but Peat's retelling of Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod adventure provides much colour.
The book is printed on slightly abrasive buff-coloured paper perhaps redolent of Antarctic hardship and times past - a good background to the text but unflattering for reproduced photographs. The designers and publishers have used photos in washed-out grey and beige to convey atmosphere rather than information.
Shackleton's Whisky is thoroughly footnoted, glossaried and indexed.
The saga is told skilfully by Peat in one of the best and southernmost of his growing shelf-full of books on the South.
In the most exciting parts of the book the author slips into the present tense in the breathless style used by overdressed, shoulder-padded TV reporters standing in front of the latest 6 o'clock news scene - this works better when the action described is closest to the present day.
The publishers missed an opportunity by releasing the book only weeks after Father's Day because dads will love this book with its tales of derring-do in the ultimate blokes' shed with its own underground whisky well. Get it for him for Christmas.
