The Two-Headed Whale

“Remarkably moving and effective… The Two-Headed Whale is a grim reminder that our actions have long-lived consequences, but Winterbottom does give us some hope that healing can happen, whether it’s in Antarctica or closer to home.”
–Winnipeg Free Press

”[A] majestic look at the barbaric heyday of commercial whaling in the Antarctic Ocean and the lingering consequences for its practitioners and the planet.”
–Cory Oldweiler, Boston Globe

“Remarkable… A heart-scalding, excruciatingly detailed account of life on the 20th century industrial whaling ships that roamed the Southern Ocean… Highly recommended.”
–The Vancouver Sun

“Urgent and moving.”
–Publishers Weekly STARRED review

”[E]ngrossing….Part memoir, part environmental study, and part history text, The Two-Headed Whale evokes the drama and beauty of life at sea. It also captures the nobility of Earth’s largest mammals and the devastation wrought by the whaling industry.
–Foreword Reviews

“Winterbottom captures, like nothing else I’ve read, the ambiguities that Antarctica inveigles into the traveller’s heart and mind. Her superb descriptions of daily life on a whaler have the sharp tang of immediacy.”
–John Harrison, author of Forgotten Footprints

“A moving exploration of the historical imagination. Sandy Winterbottom reaches down–into herself, into the past, into the deep sea and finds heart-struck tragedy, the fabulous glory of the natural world, and that siren yearn of simple mystery that keeps us, all, searching. So much has been lost. Here is a journey that wrests a small and precious gift from oblivion.”
–D. Graham Burnett, author of Trying Leviathan and The Sounding of the Whale“

The Two-Headed Whale challenges preconceptions of the Antarctic, splicing in themes of colonialism and capitalism and their links to both environmental and human exploitation.”
–The Sunday Post

“A triumph of research… A moving and compassionate eulogy for a young man who, without Winterbottom, would have remained anonymous and unremembered.”
–The Herald

Sandy Winterbottom spent most of her career as an academic teaching and researching in the Environmental Sciences at Stirling University. In 2010, she left to work in the renewables industry but following a life-changing trip to South Georgia and the Antarctic in 2016, she returned to study and completed the Creative Writing Masters Programme at Stirling University, tutored by Kathleen Jamie. She lives near Muckhart in Central Scotland.

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