Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica

Joint-winner of the 2008 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History

Winner of The Douglas Stewart Prize at the 2008 NSW Premier's Literary Awards

Winner of the non-fiction prize at the 2007 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards

Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award 2007

Praise for Slicing the Silence

"RARELY ARE history, biology, meteorology, geography and personal reflection brought together in a narrative so gripping, poetic and precise. Woven into this complex history of heroic feats and failures, scientific discoveries, international politics and the dawning of tourism, are Tom Griffiths' diary entries that record his journey to Antarctica in the summer of 2002-03 and his impressions of this awesome, polar wonderland of "enveloping silence". The result is itself awesome: a work of vast scope that sings on the page. Read it and be transported." THE AGE

"Slicing the Silence already has claims to become a ‘classic’ in the body of modern Australian historical writing. It is an eminently readable and highly enjoyable book which will meet the test of scholars and general readers – a rare combination.” JUDGES' COMMENTS, THE PRIME MINISTER'S PRIZE FOR AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

In the summer of 2002–03, acclaimed writer and historian Tom Griffiths voyaged the Southern Ocean to Antarctica. He was on board the first Australian ship to ‘slice the silence’ of a year, arriving at Casey Station to deliver the new team of ‘winterers’ and take away the old. In Slicing the Silence Griffiths interweaves his own diary entries with rich and engaging essays on Antarctic history, science and culture.