Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (1865–1940)

I very much enjoyed this short audiobook. I had heard of Grenfell's work in Newfoundland but have never read anything by him. This book is about a journey he took with his dog sled team to render medical help. He decided to take a shortcut across a bay but found that the ice was not solid. He and his dogs went into the icy water but they finally managed to make it to a small sheet of ice. For the rest of the day and the night Grenfell and his dogs were on this ice pan. Miraculously he survived but he had to kill three of his dogs to do so. Everywhere he lived since then he had a plaque to the memory of those three dogs.… (more)

From AudioFile Magazine:

Brookes is excellent as the philosophical and quick-thinking Grenfell, who believes he is facing certain death. The mournful notes of various hymns that intersperse the narrative enhance the atmosphere of hopelessness.

From AUDIOWORLD:

I don't hate snow. I hate ICE. I got major chills listening to the ultimate audio book of survival in the winter, Adrift on an Ice pan. Chris Brooke’s first person narrative as Dr. Wilfred Grenfell astonishes in this recounting of the doctor's harrowing ordeal. The short cd reminds me of Jack London's Call of the Wild. This project, only a little over an hour, is wonderful and surreal because it is true. Wonderful listening.

From Robin McGrath, Northeast Avalon Times:

I’m not sure exactly what it is about this story that makes it so compelling, but it retains its hold on the imagination to this day. There is the obvious drama of the do-good doctor imperiled in the course of his duty; there is the appeal of the dogs, brave dumb beasts who trust their master even as he cuts their throats; there is the Robinson Crusoe detail of making-do with what is at hand in an emergency. But it goes beyond that.

The story-telling technique is akin to the Perils of Pauline. Grenfell manages to rig up a harness but “alas” it isn’t long enough. He finds a slightly larger pan on which to take refuge, but “unfortunately” he can’t get the dogs to go to it. Each time, he uses his ingenuity to hang on another hour, but alas and unfortunately, each time is thwarted by merciless nature. But he never gives up.

It is probably no coincidence that 1908 was the year Ralph Connor’s first volume of fiction was published. Connor, a proponent of Muscular Christianity, wrote stories in which physical courage was matched by moral courage and Christian principles always won in the end. It may sound stuffy, but it wasn’t—to this day I can recall the wild ride through the woods of The Man From Glengarry, as vividly as I remember the Headless Horseman in pursuit of Ichabod Crane in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

All of which is intended to convince you that Adrift on an Icepan is no dull Christian tract but a ripping good adventure that will hold the attention of people of all ages and genders.

Viewers of Varrick Frisell’s film The Viking, which was released on video a few years back, will recall that Wilfred Grenfell has a high, somewhat weak voice. Janis Spence has taken this straw and spun it into gold. Chris Brookes’ thready pipes and somewhat English intonations are perfect for Grenfell, but by adopting an intimate, slightly tongue-in-cheek modulation, he catches the magic that made the doctor one of the most sought-after lecturers in North America. You feel like you are holed up in a tilt or an igloo on a nasty night, with this fascinating man murmuring his story into your ear.

A century ago, the addendum by George Andrews, “rendered into an approximation of northern Newfoundland dialect” as Ron Rompkey put it, might have seemed just a quaint confirmation of Grenfell’s courage. Today, it reads a bit differently. You don’t need to be a mental genius to realize that accidentally falling into a dangerous situation, as happened to Grenfell, is somewhat different from deliberately putting yourself into potential harm as his rescuers did.

Obviously, the real hero wasn’t the doctor who worked to save his own life but the man like Andrews who imperiled his life to save another. And while Jay Roberts doesn’t work to put an ironic spin on his reading, the fact that Grenfell rewarded his rescuers with framed photographs of himself speaks volumes.

The acting, the music, the beautiful cover design by John Andrews, the excellent quality of the sound, all combine in a classic recording of a classic tale, proof if it were needed that Newfoundland can produce world-class works of literary and technological merit.

I can confidently recommend this CD as a nostalgia or historic icon, but that would be selling it short. Grenfell might have had his weaknesses and faults, but Rattling Books’ Adrift on an Icepan is a timely reminder that he was a dynamite storyteller who could twist and manipulate his listeners with the best of them. Ten decades later, he can still work the magic.… (more)