`A great, shivery, seductive read.' ElleIntelligent, accessible literary fiction of the highest order. Superbly dramatic and beautifully readable.A terrific tale of high endeavour and polar peril, this is the story of a scientific expedition to the Arctic in 1855 and the women the explorers left behind.A brilliant portrait of Victorian society obsessed with mapping and classifying everything under the sun - including the icy Arctic - where theemancipation of women and the evolution of species are the next great revolutions just stirring into life.