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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
One of the best things about this book is how it shows even the smallest places have such a depth of history. Who would predict that you could fill 370 pages with a description of three smallish lumps of rock, and yet I'd predict that this portrait of what the islands are and have been could run on for longer.
I've borrowed this after it being name-checked again and again by Barkham in Islander, and I think it adds further fuel to my own conclusions. I need to write up a proper review of that elsewhere, but for now suffice to say I think Barkham's right that people from islands are always drawn to them.
I appreciate the amount of Gàidhlig in this book, and Nicolson seems to be a very reasonable man overall. There were a few cases where I think he is a bit too susceptible to either romanticism or to his background biases. Of course, that's true for us all
I've borrowed this after it being name-checked again and again by Barkham in Islander, and I think it adds further fuel to my own conclusions. I need to write up a proper review of that elsewhere, but for now suffice to say I think Barkham's right that people from islands are always drawn to them.
I appreciate the amount of Gàidhlig in this book, and Nicolson seems to be a very reasonable man overall. There were a few cases where I think he is a bit too susceptible to either romanticism or to his background biases. Of course, that's true for us all
I kind of hate it when some form of artistic output, whether it be a film, a song, or a book, is described as "a love letter," but I don't think I've ever read a work of nonfiction that better captures a person's love of place. Nicolson, who inherited the Shiant Islands in the Hebrides from his father at the age of 21 (and passed them on to his own son when he reached the same age, seeks to write down everything he can about these 500 acres in the middle of the sea that he knows so well. He interviews and works alongside geologists, historians, archaeologists, sailors, boatwrights, shepherds and biologists to find out all he can about this place that has captured his heart. Along the way the reader learns about puffin behavior, raising sheep, tides and currents, Scottish history, clan rivalries, early Irish missionaries -- it's amazing the wide range of topics that have a connection to this special place.
But Nicolson is at his best when describing his personal interaction with the landscape of the Shiants and the people around them. His writing is quite poetic and is to be savored. I loved his descriptions of simple walks around the islands in all kinds of weather, spent observing the grass, birds, sea and skies. And no wonder, considering his pedigree. It wasn't until the end that he let on that his grandmother was Vita Sackville-West. He writes better than anyone about the idea of "islandness" -- how an island can at once represent extreme isolation and the most intimate community.
But Nicolson is at his best when describing his personal interaction with the landscape of the Shiants and the people around them. His writing is quite poetic and is to be savored. I loved his descriptions of simple walks around the islands in all kinds of weather, spent observing the grass, birds, sea and skies. And no wonder, considering his pedigree. It wasn't until the end that he let on that his grandmother was Vita Sackville-West. He writes better than anyone about the idea of "islandness" -- how an island can at once represent extreme isolation and the most intimate community.
I read this book because I'm interested in people who spend time alone and in our relationship with the places we love. Adam N. has a deep relationship with these islands, their geology, geography, bird life, sheep, the stout little boat that ferries him back and forth, and most vivid, its human history: early Christians, the Vikings, peasant farmers, the clearances, shipwrecks, tragic deaths, clan warfare, class tensions, and a strange 19th century family who lived there for decades but left the very same day their older mother died. Sometimes the book was slow - the chapter on geology, for instance, for me. But you learn so much about the Hebrides, Scotland, puffins (!), and British history. Lots of good stories. My favorite chapter is on Christian hermits, who lived on forsaken little islands all across the Hebrides in the Dark Ages, and centered on a pillow-like stone carved with a cross that Adam found in the Shiants, probably first kept by one of these men (or women?). Great read.
Too detailed/descriptive and the writing isn't gripping enough. Pity, because the first few pages were intriguing and the setting is obviously unique.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Buddy reading in Nov
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Wow, what a read. Such beautiful nature writing and very true to my experience of the Hebrides. It really slowed down in the middle, which was a real shame. Some interesting discussions of a history I don’t know much about, and ideas surrounding land ownership. Also some of the language was quite offensively sexist, and generally not very well thought through, for example with relation to views on women more generally, or disability (and given it’s date of publication, not really to be dismissed as ‘of-it’s-time’). But despite this, it is a real love letter to some islands I have sworn to myself to visit one day.
I didn't want to like this book: rich guy gets to own an island. And yet there was a deep love for place - and an appreciation of its hardships and dangers - that really made me think about how we relate to these challenging environments, and how we come to love them by more than simply owning them.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I just can't seem to be interested enough to pick this book up right now.