Budleigh Past and Present

  Shackleton in 1901, aged 27. Portrait by an  unidentified photographer  Visitors to Fairlynch Museum’s Antarctic exhibition a few years ago were fascinated by the story of former Budleigh resident Murray Levick and his five companions, members of Captain Scott’s ill-fated ‘Terra Firma’ expedition. The group succeeded against all the odds in surviving the six-month polar winter, sheltering for much of the time in a snow cave. Antarctic expert Meredith Hooper and me at Fairlynch's 'Survival!' exhibition in 2012 Fairlynch’s exhibition was praised by, among others, the writer and broadcaster Meredith Hooper. The Australian-born Antarctic expert was one of the guest authors attending Budleigh Salterton’s 2012 Literary Festival to talk about her book The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes.   The Endurance, listing heavily, immediately before being crushed by the ice, October 1915.  Photo by...

  Author Meredith Hooper presents a copy of her book The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes to Fairlynch Museum Secretary Iris Cooper The great age of Britain’s polar heroes lives on thanks to the organisers of centenary events like Fairlynch’s much-praised   ‘Survival!’ exhibition of 2012-13. Antarctic expert Meredith Hooper followed up her visit to the Museum’s exhibition with an appearance as one of the guest authors at Budleigh Salterton’s 2012 Literary Festival.   Her book The Longest Winter: Scott's Other Heroes highlighted the heroism of those members of Robert Falcon Scott’s Northern Party, which included former Budleigh resident Murray Levick. The book was praised by Brian Schofield in The Sunday Times as “an authoritative and insightful chronicle” of the group’s harrowing experience during Scott’s fatal Terra Nova Expedition of 1910- 13. It was, he wrote, a vivid reconstruction which displays “the true grit and peculiar Englishness of th...