The death of Captain Oates ("I am just going outside and may be some time") and Scott's last entry ("For God's sake look after our people") have become the stuff of legend, but what stands out is his skill as a writer. Unlike Amundsen, who simply raced to the South Pole, Scott took a more leisurely, scientific interest in everything he saw, making notes on the "green ghostly light" of dawn, the changeable weather, the blizzards, the penguins, the killer whales, even his own dogs and ponies. He has nothing but praise for his men

The full range of the human and the divine is called into play

There is a manifest integrity about his work, a ruthless self-exposure, and a determination to venture into territory where few dramatists dare to tread

In this take on Aeschylus' The Oresteia, O'Neill substitutes the New England House of Mannon for the House of Atreus and concocts a typically over-the-top cocktail of sex, envy, adultery, matricide and inescapable guilt

Clever, spry and sad in equal measure...a pacy plot whose twists and shifts of viewpoint make for much anxious page-turning

A scintillating story of lust, deception and retribution

Beautifully written...with a featherlight touch, Moggach keeps the tension at fever-pitch until the final hilarious – and entirely unexpected – climax

A personal journey through places and people I know