Every other Sunday we are taking a look at the world of books. I read a lot and always want to share my opinions on what I read, so I thought it would be fun to write reviews. Today we are going on an adventure with Alexander Armstrong.

Land of the Midnight Sun: My Arctic Adventures  (2016)

Alexander Armstrong

Synopsis

In an adventure of a lifetime, Alexander Armstrong wraps up warm and heads ever north to explore the hostile Arctic winter – the glittering landscape of Scandinavia, the isolated islands of Iceland and Greenland, and the final frontier of Canada and Alaska.

Along the way he learns from the Marines how to survive sub-zero temperatures by eating for England, takes a white-knuckle drive along a treacherous 800-mile road that’s a river in summer and, with great reluctance, strips off for a dip in the freezing Arctic waters – and that’s all before wrestling Viking-style with a sporting legend called Eva as part of an Icelandic winter festival.

Sharing the wonder of the Arctic in his inimitable style, Land of the Midnight Sun is a brilliantly entertaining travelogue that takes readers on an exhilarating and hilarious journey to the farthest reaches of the globe. Through his witty exploration of the region’s remarkable landscape and lifestyle, and its even more remarkable people, Armstrong proves himself the ideal travel companion

– from Waterstones

Positive Points

I have read a lot of books about the North Pole as I am fascinated by the area as it is such a unique place and I always find something new to discover when I read a new book by a different author. I went into this book not expecting a lot, the guy from Pointless, Classic FM and one half of Armstrong and Miller going on a travel adventure and then writing about it? I was sceptical. I never knew that there was a television show about it for ITV until I read it in the book that was the whole reason why he was going, and it made sense as to why he was travelling there.

The book really surprised me, it was a very good read and I found myself engaged very early on (as soon as he mentioned an eye surgery, I had never heard of that he underwent, I found myself being pulled into this book.) I really liked the honesty throughout and that it is not all positive but he also explains the negatives in depth as well.

I have never seen the television show that this book writes about but I assume that this book goes further in depth as to what the whole experience was about.

Negative Points

I cannot think of that many negatives to really discuss as I thought it was a well written book. I felt as travel books go, it was very easy to read and any reader could easily jump into this and enjoy it. Whilst there are photographs of the adventure, maybe I would of liked a lot more as they do many activities it would of been nice to maybe of seen more of the areas they visited and seen the things such as the Grouse vodka that was disgusting.

Overall Review

From reading a lot of travel books, I would say that this one is a pleasant read. If you were to think of Alexander Armstrong writing a book on travel then this would be it. I really admired the honesty throughout and was expecting him to be more like the presenter in Pointless but having the opinions throughout when he was not enjoying something or when something was not fun was very refreshing.

Rating : **** 4 Stars