North Pole and Polar Worlds review – why Inuit don’t worry about north

Exciting tales of heroic polar explorers make a great exhibition, but a book on the North Pole shows that times are too changed not to seek deeper narratives

Image courtesy of the National Maritime Museum and Casson Mann. ©Hufton+Crow

By Alun Anderson

Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Gallery: Polar Worlds, National Maritime Museum, London

AT THE start of his book, Michael Bravo promises to “treat the mysterious power and allure of the North Pole in a way you will not have seen before”.

It is a promise he fulfils in North Pole, a narrative that avoids the usual histories of exploration. His mission is to chart the layers of meaning that the pole has accumulated in our minds and …