On Sept 1 it was announced in Melbourne that Meredith Hooper won the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction 2008 for her book ,The Ferocious Summer, (Profile Books UK, Allen & Unwin Australia, Greystone Books USA and Canada).

These prestigious awards were established in 1985 by the Premier of Victoria to mark the centenary of the births of Vance and Nettie Palmer – distinguished writers and critics in Victorian and Australian literary culture.

Meredith’s citation reads:
This book effortlessly gives the reader a lucid yet crucial understanding of what climate change is doing to penguins in the Antarctic and by extension to our world. Important information is engrossingly conveyed on every page through the engaging yet unsentimental voice of a superb writer whose discreet and modest presence humanises scientific endeavour in the Antarctic without itself intruding.


The website details are to be found here.
The Ferocious Summer is an IPY-endorsed book, and part of the Polar Books Collective.