Tarrant on Top of the World: In Search of the Polar Bear [Hardcover]

As such a prominent TV personality, it is hard to read this book without `hearing' the unique voice of 'Millionaire' narrating:

'There were many encounters to be had in the Kingdom of the Polar Bear - some, intriguing, some hilarious, some downright amazing. But throughout this astonishing journey, there was one creature, present or just out of sight, who dominated everything.......'

158 shiny, high quality pages split over main chapters:

1. Base Camp
2. In Search of the Polar Bear
3. In the Kingdom of the Polar Bear

with a preface and introduction.

'A passionate angler, Chris Tarrant's interest in bears was first triggered by sightings of grilzzlies whilst fishing in the wilds of Canada. For years he harboured a plan to mount an expedition in search of their more ferocious cousins, polar bears. They are to be found in greatest numbers in the extreme north of Norway, about 400 miles south of the pole, near Svalbard, immortalized in Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. Early in 2005, with his 17-year stint at Capital Radio at last behind him, he assembled a TV crew and stills photographer and headed for Svalbard in the 'Kingdom of the Polar Bear' for 'one of the most amazing adventures of my life'. This book is a record of that trip, and a homage to the power and beauty of one of the most ferocious predators on Earth.'

It is also packed full of facts about the majestic beast, with stunning photography throughout, notably in the 'Bears Swimming' and 'Mother and Baby' sections.
The section entitled 'Bears Catching their Food' is less startling than in other publications dealing with the not-so-pretty, but nevertheless essential, 'law of nature'.

The main text of the book is interspersed with vibrant and sometimes poetic text, e.g.:

'White, green and blue are their dominant colours - a bay full of drifting icebergs can seem like an artist's wildest imaginings'
or:
'During the short summer the air is filled with the sound of melting as the ice is dissolved by the midnight sun, providing a constant soundtrack throughout this stupendous part of the planet...'

'In Search of the Caribou' is a sweet deviation:

'Unbelievably, the caribou stood still enough for me to reach out and stroke him. Our skilful stalking had been little short of magnificent.....but our joy was rather spoiled the next morning..........'

Basically the book is about Chris Tarrant's 2005 journey to the Arctic North to find and film polar bears and Arctic wildlife. It is designed as a companion to the one-off television documentary that resulted from this trip, and as such probably fulfils its purpose. However if reading the book without seeing the documentary, 'Tarrant on Top of the World' does not fulfil its potential.

At 157 pages long it only took me half a day to read, largely because of the quantity and size of photographs and the spaced out text. A typical two page spread consists of a photograph on one side and a page of text on the other, although there are several photo's which take up a double spread. This limits the amount of actual reading required and makes for a very short book.

Although some of the photos are excellent, many merely feature Tarrant standing in front of a helicopter or on a ship and don't really warrant the space they get. Furthermore on virtually every page there is a small paragraph in much larger writing that simply repeats something written on the same page in the normal text. This seems to serve no purpose except to attract people who are flipping through it at Waterstones! Once you have the book this becomes increasingly irritating.

The text that there is is fairly good, particularly in the last chapters which are more about the animals and the environment rather than Tarrant's trip. However the main part - featuring the journey - is unclear and misses out large periods. Despite interesting parts (such as a small town stuck in Soviet Russia) it is poorly structured and you cant really follow the journey stage by stage.

This book is not worth the £18 RRP or indeed the £13 Amazon charges, but it has some good photos and helps you learn about polar bears in an easy to read way. A good one to get from the library.