What book do Prince Charles, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Princess Patricia von Hohenberg of Austria, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands all have in their libraries? No it's not Who Moved My Cheese? It's ANTARCTICA, an oversized, limited-edition (950 copies) volume with 330 vivid photos, like a shot of Antarctic seabirds soaring over angular ice flows that looks like an abstract etching.

You needn't be a royal to buy the book, though some discretionary income would help: It costs $2,900. But this is really a charity play. All profits go to BirdLife International's Save the Albatross campaign. Which is how the royals got involved. It seems that a flock of them are in the Rare Bird Club, an offshoot of Cambridge, England-based BirdLife, whose members each adopt an endangered bird species.

Authors Pat and Rosemarie Keough are veterans of coffee-table book publishing in Canada, having put together six previous brisk-selling volumes (like The Ottawa Valley Portfolio).

Before sending in a buy order, reinforce your coffee table. Book and box together weigh as much as a pair of fur seal pups: 27.6 pounds.


Caption: It's okay to buy it for the pictures: Emperor penguins; a glacier in Victoria Land; abandoned British base on Deception Island.

Forbes: November 25, 2002