{"product_id":"9781399822725","title":"Empire at the Edge of the World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A fabulous tale of ambition, madness and catastrophe' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Dalrymple\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne man's lust for empire sent a team of adventurers into the Arctic - only one came back.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e1913, the Arctic Circle.\u003c\/i\u003e Charismatic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson is obsessed with a frozen speck of land in the Siberian Arctic: Wrangel Island. Believing that whoever possesses it will control the future - air routes, resources, even the balance of power in the northern hemisphere, he takes an impossible gamble. Dispatching a small, ill-equipped venture to stake a frozen colony in Britain's name, it is a triumph of brilliance, ego and breathtaking hubris.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e What follows is a catastrophe of starvation, madness and geopolitical jeopardy. As winter seals the island in ice, relief ships fail to arrive and tensions among the colonists spiral toward despair. While diplomats spar and warships steam north, the settlers are left to endure scurvy, polar bears, and the terror of abandonment. At the centre of it all stands one unlikely survivor - a young Inuit seamstress who miraculously outlasts them all . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sweeping, chilling and stranger than fiction, \u003ci\u003eEmpire at the Edge of the World\u003c\/i\u003e is a true story of greed and justice at the edge of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Milton, Giles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58757069177206,"sku":"9781399822725","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1208\/4146\/files\/9781399822725.jpg?v=1789655798","url":"https:\/\/chepstowbooks.co.uk\/products\/9781399822725","provider":"Chepstow Books \u0026 Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}