Snow Widows

SNOW WIDOWS is a chilling historical reconstruction of the untold history of Robert Falcon Scott’s fatal Antarctic expedition – told through the lens of the women they left behind. Mining never-before-seen archive material to reconstruct the lives of five women – wives, mothers, and sisters of the men participating – SNOW WIDOWS by Katherine MacInnes offers a fresh and utterly different perspective on the race to the South Pole. It was published in April 2022 by William Collins in the UK.

Kathleen Scott, the fierce young wife of the expedition leader, campaigned relentlessly for Scott’s reputation, but did her ambition for glory drive her husband to take unnecessary risks? Oriana Wilson, a true help-mate and partner to the expedition’s doctor, was a scientific mind in her own right and understood more than most what the men faced in Antarctica. Emily Bowers was a fervent proponent of Empire, having spent much of her life as a missionary teacher in the colonies. The indomitable Caroline Oates was the very picture of decorum and everything an Edwardian woman aspired to be, but she refused all invitations to celebrate her son Laurie’s noble sacrifice. Lois Evans led a harder life than the other women, constantly on the edge of poverty and forced to endure the media’s classist assertions that her husband Taff, the sole ‘Jack Tar’ in a band of officers, must have been responsible for the party’s downfall. Her story, brought to light through new archival research, is shared here for the first time.

In a gripping and remarkable feat of historical reconstruction, Katherine MacInnes vividly depicts the lives, loves and losses of five women shaped by the unrelenting culture of Empire and forced into the public eye by tragedy. It also reveals the five heroes, not as the caricatures of legend, but as the real people they were.

Katherine MacInnes first became interested in the wives of the Antarctic explorers when her husband left to climb Everest. She has written three plays and a biography of Oriana Wilson Woman, with the Iceberg Eyes. She lives in Gloucestershire and is represented by Charlie Viney at The Viney Agency.