A Hostile Beauty Life on Macquarie Island

There are few places today that are truly wild. Macquarie Island - a small, wind-blasted rocky outcrop between Tasmania and Antarctica - is still one such place. In exquisite pictures and words, A HOSTILE BEAUTY tells the story of this extraordinary Australian outpost teeming with life. Alistair Dermer's stunning photography takes us up close and personal with the inhabitants: gentle gentoo penguins, engorged elephant-seal bulls and scavenging skuas, and deep into a landscape that is as beautiful and life-giving as it is hostile and pitiless. Let these superb images, from the fury of the squalling Southern Ocean to the warm, trusting eyes of a seal pup, transport you to one of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth.

Alistair Dermer is in natural resource management and worked on Macquarie Island with the Australian Antarctic Division, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Greencorp, and, most recently, to Bush Heritage Australia. Danielle Wood is a creative writing teacher at the University of Tasmania in Australia. She is a former journalist, producer with ABC Radio, and media officer for Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service.