Sir Clements R. Markham (1830-1916) had succumbed to smoke after accidentally igniting his bedclothes while reading by candlelight; the task of completing this history therefore fell to his friend and fellow geographer F. H. H. Guillemard (1852-1933), who published it in 1921. In the course of his long career, Markham had sailed to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin, jeopardised his job in the India Office by joining the British attempt to reach the North Pole in 1875-6, and served as president of the Royal Geographical Society, sending Robert Falcon Scott on his first expedition to...

Although a member of the Royal Geographical Society, and author of a number of books on geography, little is known of William Bisiker. Published in 1902, this is an account of an expedition, led by him, across central Iceland in 1900. The five men and one woman journeyed from the north-east of the country down to the south-west, and the book also gives accounts of visits to the Faroe Islands and coastal journeys to the fjords. Including maps, photographs and an extensive appendix compiled by expedition member and botanist Arthur William Hill on the island's plant life, this work remains a...