Christopher Pilling was a prize-winner in the National Poetry Competition and has published nine collections of his own poetry, as well as translations of poems by Tristan Corbière (a Book of the Year for the Sunday Telegraph and the World Service of the BBC in 1995), Max Jacob and Lucien Becker (a PBS Recommended Translation in 2004). He has also written a number of plays. With William Scammell, he founded a Cumbrian Poets' workshop which has run for thirty years, and has seen two of his plays performed at the Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. In 2006, Christopher Pilling won first prize in the John Dryden Translation Competition, one of the UK's most prestigious translation awards.

Foreign Bodies is an original poetry collection published in 1992. Love at the Full is an English translation of Lucien Becker's Plein Amour , and was published in 2004. Springing From Catullus is an English translation of Catullus' complete works, and was published in 2009.

The British North Greenland Expedition was the first large scale British led expedition covering the Greenland Ice Sheet. Led by Commander James Simpson, between 1952 and 1954 the expedition had a wide range of aims and objectives including developing understanding of geological mapping, meteorology, polar medicine, and polar logistics.

Across the expedition 30 men participated. Most were members of the military, with the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army all being represented, with the remainder, non-military scientists. Many of the participants involved went on to have notable careers in exploration, academia, after the expedition, several members participated in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-1958. Some of the those figures included Captain Mike Banks who later wrote a book about the expedition and went on to participate in further expeditions and Peter John Whyllie, a geologist who went on to have a notable academic career in the field. Also involved was Hal (Harold) Lister who had a notable career as a glaciologist and academic including a career at Newcastle University and Stan Paterson who also went on to have a successful academic career in glaciology after the expedition.

The expedition established it's main base at Britannia Lake for the duration of the expedition with a field base at Northice. Two field teams traversed the ice undertaking work including measuring the ice sheet, gravimetry and meteorology. A mixture of dogs and sleds and Weasel tracked military vehicles were used for transportation around the ice sheet. As well as maintaining radio communications between the individual elements of the expedition, the expedition maintained radio communications with a base in London (known as PakIce) and staff at the Danish and US Air Force base at Thule. Resupply missions were carried out by parachute drop from airplane and overland from Thule. Overall the expedition acted as a test-bed and development opportunity for practices that would be used in later polar expeditions by Britain and other countries.

While the mission was largely successful in achieving it's many broad scientific aims, there were failures too. Perhaps the most notable was the crash of an aircraft onto the ice-sheet during an early re-supply mission in September 1952, which resulted in the loss of the craft and several injured crew who had to shelter in the wreckage until a successful rescue airlift attempt. There was one fatality amongst expedition staff, Captain Hans Jenson died in an accident while working in the field. Near misses included fires in the engine room of a base which was extinguished before it caused significant damage, and breakdowns and accidents involving the Weasel tracked vehicles which were used for travel on the ice sheet.

Richard Brett-Knowles was born in Essex in 1924. Educated at St Catherine's College of Oxford University, with a life-long interest in radio engineering, Brett Knowles worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment during World Word 2 which developed early radar technology. During the latter years of the war he joined the RAF, learnt to fly aeroplanes, and spent time in occupied Dutch territory learning about German radar technology.

In 1946 he joined the Royal Navy as an Instructor Officer, teaching at Dartmouth College. During this time he participated in the British North Greenland Expedition as an assistant scientist and radio officer from 1952 to 1954. The expedition was a pioneering British-led attempt to conduct research in several areas including polar geology, seismology, meteorology, physiology, gravimetry, radio communications and developing expertise in polar logistics.

Later, Brett-Knowles left the Navy and joined the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment where he was involved in several research and development projects. Following early retirement he became a consultant engineer and contributed to the development of products in the commercial aerospace industry. After retirement Brett-Knowles continued his life-long amateur radio hobby up until his death in 2015.

Born in London in 1923 Ken Taylor joined the Royal Navy in 1938. He served on several ships and naval bases during and after the end of the war after receiving training and specialising in radio operations. In 1952 Taylor joined the British North Greenland Expedition as a radio operator. The 2 year expedition was wide ranging and undertook research in fields including geology, meteorology, glaciology, seismology, physiology and the logistics of long term polar exploration. Following the expedition Taylor continued his naval service serving in ships and shore bases until his retirement from the service in 1963.

Angus Erskine was born in Edinburgh in 1929 and attended Dartmouth Naval College, before going to sea shortly before the end of World War 2. He began his acquaintance with the polar regions as part of the crew of the Navies Antarctic guard ship, and was later selected to join the British North Greenland Expedition in charge of the expedition's sledge dogs. The expedition had wide ranging objectives in the fields of geology, meteorology, glaciology, seismology, physiology and the logistics of operating in a polar environment.

After his return from Greenland Erskine returned to naval duties and was appointed to the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey where he commanded that station at Detaille Island and led survey teams working in the area. Erskine Glacier on the west coast of Graham Land is named after him. He continued his career in the Navy until 1972, after which he led the training ship Captain Scott for 4 years, before setting up his own travel business, which he sold in 1991. Erskine died in Edinburgh in 2007, aged 77.

Born in west London in 1927, Richard Brooke went to Dartmouth Naval College from the age of 13 before joining the Royal Navy. He participated on the crew of several naval ships during World War 2, before later joining the survey ship HMS Scott. From here, encouraged by his ships commander, he joined the British North Greenland Expedition as a surveyor. The expedition lasted from 1952 to 1954 and undertook pioneering research in the fields of meteorology, geology, seismology, physiology and the logistics of polar exploration.

After the expedition Brooke would remain in the Royal Navy until 1966. During this time he was able to engage in several more expeditions, a highlight amongst them being the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955 - 1958, which was led by Brooke's former naval commander Vivian Fuchs and involved a New Zealand support team lead by Sir Edmund Hillary of which Brookes was a member. In recognition of work, which included leading a survey team, the highest mountain in the Prince Albert range was named Mount Brooke. After leaving the Navy Brooke worked for the Electricity Council in the Birmingham and Bristol areas and continued his passion for mountain treks. He died in June 2020.

Colin Bull was born in Birmingham in 1928. Spending his formative years near Hereford, he went onto gain a degree in Physics from the University of Birmingham and PHD in solid state physics. Throughout his career Bull participated, and went onto organise, many scientific expeditions to the polar regions. One of these was the pioneering British North Greenland Expedition of 1952 to 1954 in which Bull participated as a geophysicist, part of a team of over 20 who undertook ground-breaking research in areas including geology, gravimetry, seismology, physiology and the logistics of large scale polar exploration.

After returning from Greenland Bull married Diana Gillian Garrett in 1954 and later accepted a position at the University of Wellington in New Zealand where he would lead a successful Antarctic expedition in 1958-1959 and a further expedition to Greenland in 1960-1961. Later in 1961 Bull accepted a position at Ohio State University where he taught glaciology, with successive promotions becoming the Dean of the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. He also participated on several committees including spending time as Chairman of the Glaciology panel of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and on the Polar Research Board and the Council on Polar Research. Bull retired in 1986 and spent time travelling and trading books about the polar regions. He died in 2010.