Trevor Hamley 2023. Vodka in a Vegemite Jar. Brisbane, self-published: trevorhamley.com, 247 pp.

Captivating narrative of adventures in Antarctica by old friend Trevor Hamley. Most of the book is taken up by an epic 3,000 km round trip in 1983 from Russian station Mirny. Trev’s matter-of-fact delivery makes the whole thing more memorable and, to me, very much in the self-effacing style of the great Antarctic writer-adventurers (Cherry-Garrard, Shackleton et al). Good company to keep and surely Trev wouldn’t have been out of place on those expeditions even if his modern day voyage maybe wasn’t (quite) so dangerous. The Russian expeditioners and Trev had quite a bit in commmon with their predecessors of the heroic era, including not just appetite for adversity but other risk factors not least heavy smoking and poor diet.

Like all good scientists there are references. Also includes two appended essays, one a concise and objective few pages on glaciology and climate change, the other on the Russian doctor Leonid Rogosov who removed his own appendix on a (different) Russian station in 1961. The topic presumably accounting for the editorial decision to call these essays rather than appendices.

Also see Trev’s interview with another old friend at Ice Coffee podcast