Lecture on Tom Crean ‘The Ice Man’ at Crawley Library, Tuesday 24th May 7.30pm

The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society as part of Crawley Fleadh 2011 welcomes best selling author Michael Smith to Crawley Library to talk on the remarkable adventures of Irish explorer, Tom Crean.

This lecture, illustrated with many outstanding historic photographs, is based on Smith’s No 1 best-selling book An Unsung Hero, which has has sold almost 90,000 copies worldwide and resulted in a statue being erected in Tom Crean’s honour in Kerry, Guinness theming a TV advertisement on the explorer-turned publican and Crean’s story being taught in Irish schools for the first time.

“Crean’s three epic voyages to the Antarctic with Scott and Shackleton a century ago are the stuff of legends. He was among the last to see Scott alive a few miles from the South Pole and survived Shackleton’s Endurance expedition by sailing an open boat across the Southern Ocean and crossing South Georgia on foot to save comrades marooned on Elephant Island.

Tom Crean was the unsung hero of the heroic age of Polar exploration, an indestructible character who sailed on three of the four great British expeditions with Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Antarctic. He ran away from home at the age of 15, spent longer in the icy wilderness than either Scott or Shackleton and outlived most of the era’s more notable figures.

But Crean never spoke about his exploits and he became a forgotten figure until publication of his first biography, An Unsung Hero in 2000.

An Unsung Hero became a No 1 best-seller in Ireland and has since been published in the UK, US and Italy. The book brought Tom Crean’s outstanding life to wider audiences for the first time and brought him the recognition, which eluded him in life.”

MICHAEL SMITH is a best selling author who specialises in the history of Polar exploration. He has written eight books, appeared on TV and radio, contributed to newspapers and magazines and lectured extensively on the subject.
An Unsung Hero – Tom Crean, his first book, was a No 1 best seller in Ireland and short-listed for the Banff Mountain Book Festival, 2002. Tom Crean – An Illustrated Life was nominated for Irish Published Book of Year in 2007. MICHAEL SMITH began writing books after a career of 30 years as a leading newspaper journalist, including Political Correspondent and Industrial Editor of The Guardian, City Editor of the Evening Standard and Business Editor of The Observer.

Following publication of An Unsung Hero, a statue was erected to Crean outside his home at Anascaul, County Kerry.  Sir Edmund Hillary travelled from New Zealand to open a major public exhibition about his life and Guinness themed a television advertisement about the Irishman.  Songs have been written, award-winning stage plays performed and a TV documentary has been broadcast.  For the first time, Irish children are being taught the story of Tom Crean in schools.