Henry looked at the ad for a few minutes and took a mouthful of beer. He was speechless. Speechless at Sam's brilliance, at his resilience, at his determination . Sam was smiling. Henry wanted to kiss him. Instead he held out his hand, and Sam shook it. And in that small, quiet Soho pub, early one Saturday evening in May (just when Sam was supposed to be setting the video recorder for Clive the Client), Sam and Henry decided to go to Antarctica.

This is a really enjoyable book, about families and relationships and not settling for a boring life. WARNING: It may make you wish you had done more with your life, and seized every opportunity that came your way, It certainly made me feel that way,

Sam Glass is 25 and feels that life is passing him by. He hates his job at an advertising agency, and hankers after a life as exciting as his grandfather Leo's. While working over the weekend yet again, Sam is looking through magazines to find adverts placed by his client's competitors when he sees an advert for jobs researching the environmental impact of tourism in Antarctica, and decided there and then to change his life.

Leo Glass is 86. He lived with his son's family while Sam was growing up, but now lives alone except for his cat. When he was younger he travelled the world as a botanist, and it is his tales of his time searching for moss in Antarctica that spur Sam on to apply for the job in Antarctica, tales that Leo now tells to his home-help, Kasia.

I was worried that Sam wouldn't make it to Antarctica, so I was relieved that he didn't decide to back out due to being in a new relationship. I wasn't surprised that Sam decided to get his own back on his employers by a subtle campaign of sabotage while he was working out his notice, but what he did the weekend after he left was over the top and I am not sure it was really in character. I can't help feeling that it was wish-fulfilment for the author, who also worked in advertising according to her author blurb. ( )