In August 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. The object of the expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland. In October 1915, still half a continent away from their intended base, the ship was first trapped, and then crushed, in ice. For five months, Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
The third novel in Annie Murray's "Birmingham" series. While Genie's father is away fighting in World War II, her mother has a ruinous affair which leaves her pregnant; Genie's little brother leaves, never to return; while Genie herself meets a man who then disappears to war.