Alexander Armstrong (1) (1970–)

The Arctic lands and ocean that sit on top of our world are harsh and unforgiving in the summer. One mistake can literally cost you your life, so unless you really know what you are doing, it is not best advised to visit in the winter. Alexander Armstrong obviously missed this piece of advice, because he is persuaded that this is going to be the optimum time to visit, in particular, if he wants to witness the end of the winter night and see the sun rise over the frozen north. But before he goes he needs to learn about Arctic survival. This is done in the most British of ways; learning from an ex-marine, in a conference room with tea and biscuits, yes biscuits.

Dusting the crumbs off and suitably equipped for his cold trip into the Arctic, Alexander heads to Scandinavia to see the sun rise for the first time is quite a while. His journey will take him around the some of the countries around the Arctic ocean. After a night in the famous Ice Hotel, he travels to Iceland where he is humiliated by a Viking style wrestler called Eva, with have a few heart stopping moments with the ice truckers as they trek back and forth along frozen rivers delivering the items that people need to survive. Foolishly he decided to try ice swimming where the water is a tropical -1 deg C, but made a better choice with pools that are warmed by the geological faults. He sees sights that will stay with him for the rest of his life and meets people who are generous with their time and hospitality.

Alexander throws himself into the various activities that they have chosen for him, which makes for entertaining reading (and viewing too). This is not a landmark book in travel writing, rather a reasonable tie-in to the TV series. It is written with Alexander’s subtle humour and wit, with the odd laugh out loud moment and it is a light hearted and easy read.… (meer)

In this travelogue Armstrong has traveled to the less frequently visited spots on our planet. His contract with a British television corporation has prompted an adventure tourism film series and with the filming, he has narrated the whole expedition with his own impressions and musings. Armstrong travels to the lands of the midnight sun in the Northern Hemisphere. He touches on the northern tips of the Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland then moves on to Greenland, northern Canada and finally finishing up in Alaska. At each stop he relates his experiences and his thoughts. His views are often laced with tongue-in-cheek asides and a gentle poking fun at himself, his crew and his hosts.

The most compelling thing about this book is reading how an adult discovers cold for the first time. Armstrong is British. Sure, he has seen snow and ice but always the ‘hovering-just-below-freezing’ slushy variety. If we have grown up with cold winters we know instinctively all the little things that Armstrong was discovering on his Arctic excursion. We know that cold snow is not wet. We know the crunchy sound of snow under our boots when the temperature dips below -30° (at either Celsius or Fahrenheit it’s still just darn cold!). We have experienced driving in the white-out of a blizzard. We know that wearing fur isn’t a fashion statement but having a fur trimmed parka hood is just down-right sensible.

Each country Armstrong visits is reviewed in the same fashion. He focuses on the people he meets, the places he visits, the sights, the foods, the cultural differences he notices. Also, early in the book, Armstrong points out that a United Nations survey on happiness has placed each of these Scandinavian countries and Canada in the top-ten list of the happiest races in the world. One might think: what are they so happy about? Long cold dark winters in huge empty spaces of forests, tundra, mountains or snow and ice. Are people in cold climates just living closer to their ancient past as members of a tribe where we needed and supported each other in order to survive? Are people in warmer places and large cities therefore fundamentally less happy because they have lost their ties to their caveman roots? Armstrong doesn’t quite answer the question directly but his impressions of these northern folks leaves the reader contemplating his or her own thoughts on this very interesting concept of happiness.… (meer)