An Unsung Hero, published six years ago, turned Tom Crean into a household name . . . he even had a Guinness ad based on his character.

Now Smith has published a second book about the legendary expeditions Crean took part in with the great Antarctic explorers Shackleton and Scott . . . this time a pictorial record of the remarkable man. Smith writes in the introduction to these photographs that it is "difficult to convey how different the world looked at the end of the 19th century as men first contemplated exploring the unknown territories of the Antarctic".

He has put together a collection of extraordinary photographs, many never published before, which start with his early life when he ran away from the family farm at the age of 15. The most astonishing are, of course, the pictures taken under the terrible conditions of the expeditions themselves, mostly by photogaphers Frank Hurley and Herbert Ponting.

Tom Crean - An Illustrated Life, Unsung Hero of the Scott and Shackleton Expeditions by Michael Smith is published in hardback by the Collins Press, /30