 In 1966, Reginald Pound, the first biographer given access to Scott's original sledging journal, revealed personal failings which cast a new light on Scott, although Pound continued to endorse his heroism, writing of "a splendid sanity that would not be subdued". Within the following decade, further books appeared, each of which to some degree challenged the prevailing public perception. The most critical of these was David Thomson's Scott's Men (1977); in Thomson's view, Scott was not a great man, "at least, not until near the end"; his planning is described as "haphazard" and "flawed", his leadership characterised by lack of foresight. Thus by the late 1970s, in Jones's words, "Scott's complex personality had been revealed and his methods questioned".
