Dr. Charles W. M. Swithinbank is an eminent glaciologist who has played a prominent role in polar research throughout the past forty-five years. With his experience of British, Scandinavian, Russian, and Canadian expeditions, he brings a powerful perspective to this narrative of years spent as a lead scientist with the US Antarctic Program. Swithinbank holds degrees from Oxford University and has held research posts at the universities of Michigan and Cambridge. His expedition record includes more than 20 visits to the Antarctic, three winters spent at isolated scientific stations, and several Arctic expeditions. His accomplishments have been recognized through the awarding of an honorary degree and medals, three of which were handed to him by reigning monarchs, and by naming one mountain range, two glaciers, and three other geographic features after him.

"How does one go about reviewing a book that to the reviewer is well nigh perfect?...I could not put the book down, but read it in a single sitting. I recommend the book to firstly those who have been lucky enough to experience working and living in Antarctica, secondly, to those who may have a vicarious curiosity about what such working and living might be like, and finally to all whose interests are in the exploration of the Antarctic and its effects on the humans who work there -- the aliens in Antarctica." 
(Antarctic, Vol.16 No. 3, 1998-99)

"This book is a first-person narrative of a British scientist’s experience working with the United states Antarctic Research Program over the span of 40 years. He obviously kept very detailed journals since names, places and events are very well documented, and he shines as more than an amateur cameraman; photographs in the book are outstanding." (The Polar Times, Fall-Winter 1997)

"This book describes, in a witty self-effacing style, [Swithinbank’s] experience as an 'alien' participating in the U.S. Antarctic Research Program . . . . The main thread of the book is an account for nonspecialists of the glaciological research Swithinbank has been engaged in with the American program for nearly 40 years, from digging snow pits and hand coring-holes, dangling from a helicopter to survey ice movements, to radar ice sounding from an 'armchair' while flying on very long flights across the continent. . . . Most vivid and sparkling, however, are the many beautiful color photographs from the 1950s to the 1990s." (Arctic and Alpine Research, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1998)