Race to the Pole.

Race to the Pole, James Cracknell & Ben Fogle.

I enjoyed the TV series, “On thin Ice” so it seemed a vaguely natural extension to read the book.

Only “vaguely” because books about TV series always have that whiff of “cash-in” especially if  celebrity is involved.  But I couldn’t resist and as the local library hands them out free, as long as you return them, all that I invested was a bit of time, least I could do.

First impressions all negative.  A cheery James and Ben on the front cover, names above the faces.  Blurb on the back about how three is a difficult number for a team.  Well they seem to have solved that when writing the book by dropping one of the team, the least famous one.  This echoed the TV coverage in which the best the good Doctor could hope for most of the time was to be remembered vaguely as “the third team member”

Why, I don’t know, but it cannot be denied.

The book takes the style of James writes a bit and then Ben writes about the same bit from his perspective.  Something I first encountered in a book about the TV series “Long Way Round”.  Three people, two remembered.

The book though is a great addition to the TV series.  Where the series was weak, the book is strong.  The book had soon dealt with the pre-race messing about, their first team, Jonny Lee Miller etc and got his replacement, all this by page 30 odd of 250ish.

One thing which came out from this was Jonny did not like being filmed at all and it caused quite some serious concerns/friction, none of which was really evident on the tv show, beyond one incident.  The difference in writing and broadcasting is shown up again and again with these little revelations in the book.

The other thing I was interested about was how James was going to come across in the book.  In the TV series, for me, he did not do so well, which puts it mildly.  Always quick to find fault in others and any fault within himself was down to someone else, a lot revolved around James in James’s mind.  Most everything that happened to other people was only useful in that they would better understand James it seemed at times.

By the end of the book I was not any closer to liking him, he is a difficult person to like, but it is not my job too, so I can leave it there.  At times James is self-aware, understanding he has said the wrong thing, done the wrong thing, but has a reason why, although he meant to, never put it right then and there.  Hindsight is useful stuff, especially if you are trying to rebuild an image.  However the fact is he got to the pole with the team and he must have played a significant part in that.

Ben is the winner in this book, a sort of everyman, or at least a person with a life within the realms of possibility.  While James was falling apart, feet in tatters, lungs filled with fluid, frost-bitten finger, making poor decisions, bullying the team, Ben was simply putting one foot in front of the other and seeming to be rather enjoying himself.

Dr Ed Coats is impossible to read, he is only reflected in his team mates views.  They both have good words to say about him and clearly he was more than a third of the team.  I suppose James would have reached the finish without Ed being in the team, but it is not a forgone fact.  At the halfway point James was in a really bad state and potentially could have been pulled from the race.  I think the race Doctors would have been partially persuaded to let him continue because the third team member was going to be a Doctor continually on hand.

The way the book was written meant it was very choppy in style which was a little tiring, the ever changing voice and the repetition of detail.

There is a lot in the book about the actual race, unlike the TV series.  The TV series probably had limited film to work with, Ben was the cameraman on that bit of the leg and had plenty of other things to worry about.

A worthwhile read if you liked the TV series, it filled in some detail, gave more of an insight into tent life but there is another story to be told yet one feels.