I Married an Explorer

Written by Miriam MacMillan, this is basically a hagiography of her husband, explorer and sailor Donald MacMillan.

Published in 1952, it primarily covers the period that Miriam knew ‘Mac' until the end of World War II. As a child MacMillan was a friend of her father (she is 31 years his junior), and well known mariner, always heading north to undertake explorations up the coast from her home in Maine. Labrador, New Foundland, Hudson Bay, Baffin Land and Greenland were his hunting grounds, and he builds favourable relationships with the Inuit (still referred to as Eskimo in this book).

There are a couple of major expeditions covered here - on the second of which the author is able to join her husband - a somewhat bold revelation for a woman to accompany the men on an expedition where there were always significant risks.

As noted above the author writes very highly of every move that ‘Mac' makes. Every person they encounter is his friend, or wants to be. Everyone is bending over backwards to aid and assist. He navigates faultlessly in fog, he predicts how the sea or the ice will react to weather.

To be fair, Donald MacMillan is recognised for making over 30 expeditions to the Arctic, he set up and supported a school in Nain (Labrador) and for his continual support of university student researchers who he took on his expeditions as crew.

The book contained a lot of good description of places and the Inuit people, but it became a bit of a slog and was tainted for me by the hero worship from the author.

3.5 stars, rounded down.