Perhaps the ease with which a book can be published is one of the major reasons for the sudden flowering of Antarctic memoirs in various countries. In the UK this has a respectable history, starting with Kevin Walton's account of life at Stonington Island in 1947 published in 1955. Since then we have had accounts of life at Maudheim (Swithinbank), Hope Bay (James and Herbert), Halley (MacDowell), Fossil Bluff (Pearce), Argentine Islands (Airey), Fuchs' account of the early adventures at all the British stations and now in this book on Deception Island and Adelaide Island. The fact that many were self-published indicates that commercial publishers feel the market is either too small to be worth the effort or the quality of the manuscript is not high enough. Of course, the way in which the British stations have been run has changed over the last 50 years, as has the science, but what does this book tell us that makes it worth reading? Michael Warr was recruited in 1963 with minimal qualifications to work for two years as a meteorologist. He travelled down and back on BAS ships, and his experiences at Deception and Adelaide did not include any major dramas. What is clear is that the experience proved to be both enduring and to some extent life shaping for him. In his final chapters he visits the sites again as a tourist aboard the Polar Star and comments on how different the life at Rothera now seems from his experience with no dogs, instantaneous communications, central heating and no snow-blocking. He does however understand that although his “golden years” cannot be recreated for those going there now their experience is unique for them. His story tells us little new but epitomises an earlier age when Antarctic science was seen as interesting but not important, when the Antarctic Treaty was just finding its feet, and when the lack of communications meant a greater reliance on initiative and a greater community spirit in the remote stations than is possible these days.