If you're interested in a pioneer who lived in the first half of the 1800s, then this book might interest you.
It's a bit dry, despite having a chapter called "Kidnapped!"
The author is a descendant of the Great Brandsfield.
She does her best to stay objective.
I struggled to get into the story.

Not a history of an important aspect of exploration, but a fully-wrought naval biography, covering every facet of a man who happened to happen upon Antarctica. The detail of every movement of every boat is such that the continent is almost a footnote.

Far be it for me to crap on someone's hard work, but this was soon abandoned. I just didn't want to spend a day in the presence of an author with such a loose grasp of what was relevant to a reader such as I, nor one with such a loose grasp of grammar. The grammar might be put down to poor proof-reading, but I think more work needs to be done to tighten this up to a fully serviceable volume. Why, for instance, does the author feel the need to list her copious public talks and newspaper mentions in the important section concerning her subject's legacy? Such self-serving detail didn't serve me.

Not much on Antarctica but despite weaknesses, is still worth reading

I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting look at maritime/navy life during the early 1800s. Ostensibly about Edward Bransfield, a lot of the book was just more general information especially on the minutiae of daily life on a boat. I also found some of the writing awkward. There was not much on who Bransfield really was and not much on Antarctica. Despite these negatives, the insights on navy life and history were good enough that the book was worthwhile reading.

My thanks to Pen and Sword/Frontline book's and Netgalley.
This should have been right up my alley! I'm not sure whether the author spent too many years in research, and not enough on the actual storytelling. Either way, it was written almost as a thesis. Very dry and quite boring. I gave up at 21%. I couldn't take any more! This is not a book I'd recommend to a casual reader. If you want the facts and a very dry tale, then this is for you. Not me.

An English navy man, Edward Bransfield was the first man to survey Antarctica. (Although certain countries would and have disputed this). Bransfield, though, did not become properly famous for his achievements, so some centuries later his namesake decided to change that. Sheila Bransfield has studied this man exhaustively, wrote her dissertation on him and now…this book. So first things first…the author is a sort of latecomer to the academic game, getting her education later in life and that and the fact that she has dedicated so much time and effort for this (traveling to Antarctica and all), obviously her passion project, that gets my highest respect. Having that been said I don’t read as much nonfiction as I probably ought to, maybe a few books each month and for the ones I do, there are some criteria. Mainly they have to be engaging enough to educate without weighing down. Ideally, with entertaining and, best case scenario, humorous narration. This book didn’t do any of it. This was a very well researched and well presented dissertation paper done up as a book. It wasn’t very long, which helped, but generally reading of it was somewhat laborious. In fact, almost gave it up at 7% and forced myself to persevere for general education and, I suppose, character building. And, having that been said, it was educational and things were learned. In fact, a proper education in the naval life and conflicts of British Empire of the early to mid 1800s was received. Some of the minutiae was very interesting indeed, but it seems that unless you have a specific interest in that area, it might come across as too much for general audience. In fact, Bransfield doesn’t even properly enter the picture until about 40% and doesn’t get to Antarctica until much later still. So basically this isn’t the exciting tale of adventure and discovery you might be hoping for. This one was more of a textbook or an academic case study. Didn’t really do much for me. Your mileage may vary. The good thing with nonfiction is that even if you don’t especially enjoy the reading, you can still learn something. So some things were learned. Thanks Netgalley.