On Sept 1 it was announced in Melbourne that Meredith Hooper won the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction 2008 for her book ,The Ferocious Summer, (Profile Books UK, Allen & Unwin Australia, Greystone Books USA and Canada). These prestigious awards were established in 1985 by the Premier of Victoria to mark the centenary of the births of Vance and Nettie Palmer – distinguished writers and critics in Victorian and Australian literary culture. Meredith’s citation reads: This book effortlessly gives the reader a lucid yet crucial understanding of what climate change is doing to penguins in the Antarctic and by extension to our world. Important information is engrossingly conveyed on every page through the engaging yet unsentimental voice of a super...

PRESS RELEASE New book from the Natural History Museum Surviving Antarctica by David N. Thomas Foreword by Ray Mears “In this fascinating book David Thomas takes us to Antarctica in a very personal way...” From foreword by Ray Mears. In a land of terrifying winds, fearful cold and icebergs the size of London, survival is everything. Journey to the end of the Earth and discover how life survives some of the most extreme conditions on the planet in Surviving Antarctica. This timely book provides an invaluable insight into the lives of all beings living and working in this hostile environment. Find out how scientists prepare for an expedition, how male Emperor penguins use their feet to protect their...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ANTARCTICA: LIFE ON THE ICE explores life at the bottom of the world What is it like to live in the most desolate place on the planet? The newest collection from outdoorswoman and writer Susan Fox Rogers brings together twenty scientists, writers and workers who tell their dramatic, funny, often moving tales of daily life amidst the ice and isolation of Antarctica. Realizing her childhood dream of walking in the footsteps of Antarctic explorers, editor Rogers spent six weeks on the Ice learning the ways of the penguin researchers, ice diggers, atmospheric scientists, cooks, pilots, and others who are drawn, almost mystically, to the most foreboding climate one can imagine. “I traveled to the Antarctic bec...

The International Polar Foundation's SciencePoles website has an interview Meredith Hooper to mark the publication of her new book: 'The Ferocious Summer: Palmer's Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica'. A trustee of the IPF-UK and recipient of the US National Science Foundation Antarctica Service Medal, Meredith Hooper's writing ranges from award-wining non-fiction books for all ages to academic articles and highly acclaimed fiction and information titles for children. During the last fourteen years, she has been invited as a wri...

The ice caps are melting but Brits still think polar bears live in Antarctica - home of the penguins. A new exhibition - Ice Station Antarctica - opens at Natural History Museum for International Polar Year 2007-2008. It will challenges kids to understand the importance of the frozen continent. Antarctica is a continent 58 times the size of the UK and it plays a crucial role in understanding global climate change, but one in ten Brits doesn't know where it is and a third of us still think polar bears live there. The Natural History Museum today launches Ice Station Antarctica, a new family blockbuster exhibition developed in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey that challenges kids to survive the extreme conditions faced by scientists researc...