Margaret Atwood read Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition and you should too. This is what Frozen in Time is about. It is the story of Sir John Franklin, who sailed in 1845, to serach for the legendary Northwest Passage over land, to walk to the Orient, in the East.

The crew of the two ships, Terror and Erebus, lived on tinned food. Unknown to them, they suffered from lead poisoning and many of them died.

The early sailors who died and were buried on Becchey Island, were John Torrington, John Hartnell and William Braine. The other crew who died later were exhumed and their facial flesh were seen to have been carved out. cannibalism was suspected.

This is a gruesome story.You can read the original book Frozen in Time, or Margaret Atwood’s essay on “Frozen in Time”. (Atwood, p. 14) This essay is published in

“Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces”, by Margaret Atwood.

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Atwood met John Geiger in around 2000, when she was on a boat sailing to the Artic. She spoke to him and discussed about how lead poisoning could have killed many people back in the day when scientific facts were less known.

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This is my book. I’ve opened it flat out to show the front and back cover.

In the months of December 2025 to January 2026, President Donald Trump of the United States, has been talking about buying Greenland to secure it from Russia and China. The news showed a map which had marked out the Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage.

Currently in this 21st century, the US, to the west of Greenland, has some military bases along the Northwest Passage. Russia, who is east of Greenland, has its military bases running along the Northeast Passage. Greenland is in a strategic geographical location.