McNeil has skill for a turn of phrase - flares unzipping a sky, or a sortie of birds at dawn. It's a story told slowly, deliberately but in half a dozen words, she gives you an instant snapshot of a scene or a moment, and what it makes you feel. She carves out an incredible sense of place, which is so important when that place is so strange and hostile, and will hold whatever we pour into it. 

A favourite addition to my slow accumulation of books on polar exploration.