Bradt guide opens up the Northwest Passage

 Tony Soper’s new book for Bradt, The Northwest Passage, shows how the five-century dream of a trade route to Asia by way of a short-cut through the Arctic archipelago is finally a reality.  This is the first book to draw together the rich history with a guide to the region. The ice-choked waterway with spectacular landscapes and a powerful history of naval endeavour is also an unfolding opportunity for adventurous travel, with a wealth of wildlife. Over the last decade global warming has opened this fabled passage in late summer for freight and for bold tourists.
 
Tony Soper uses his wealth of experience as a naturalist to describe this icy home for the majority of the world’s seabirds, enormous numbers of seals, plenty of polar bears and narwhals and more than enough mosquitoes. It is also home for Inuit, who arrived from the east, adapting superbly to a cruel climate.
 
In 1819 John Franklin commanded one of the first naval expeditions to attempt the passage. He was reduced to eating his boots in order to survive. Tony Soper was more fortunate in his own five transits of the Passage and draws on these to describe this unique and relatively unexplored territory for those lucky enough to be joining one of the growing number of cruises to the region. Those less lucky, or less adventurous, will find it an absorbing armchair read.
 
Tony Soper is best known as a naturalist who has presented many programmes for the BBC Natural History Unit.

Click here for an extract from the guide
 

Title:  The Northwest Passage      Author: Tony Soper
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides     Publication:  6th July 2012
Price: £14.99      ISBN: 9781841624389

To request a review copy or for more details  please contact Debbie Hunter press@bradtguides.com
Tel +44 (0)1753 893444