A
scurrilous journalist with a chip on his shoulder and a
penchant for making things up when the facts did not suit him.
Huntford is primarily famous for his Antarctic histories, debunking the myth surrounding Scott of the Antarctic and offering the suggestion that the British preferred their own tragedy in the name of science to Amundsen's success in the name of getting a tick. Whilst this should hardly have been news, it has led to an almost universal condemnation of Scott which has as much to do with anti-British attitudes, class war and tall poppy syndrome as it has with the nature and values of Scott's actual successes and failures.
An example:
On the return from the South Pole, Scott's party collected 35 pounds (16 kilograms) of geological specimens. Huntford dismissed these as "a pathetic little gesture to salvage something from defeat at the pole" but this material included high quality fossil specimens which were an important contribution to the theory of Continental Drift.