One of the Daily Telegraph's 20 Books Perfect for Travel

Scotland has its rugged Hebrides; Ireland its cliff-girt Arans; Wales its Island of Twenty Thousand Saints. And what has England got? The isles of Canvey, Sheppey, Wight and Dogs, Mersea, Brownsea, Foulness and Rat. But there are also wilder, rockier places - Lundy, the Scillies, the Farnes.

These islands and their inhabitants not only cast varied lights on the mainland, they also possess their own peculiar stories, from the Barbary slavers who once occupied Lundy, to the ex-major who seized a wartime fort in the North Sea and declared himself Prince of Sealand.

Ian Crofton embarks on a personal odyssey to a number of the islands encircling England, exploring how some were places of refuge or holiness, while others have been turned into personal fiefdoms by their owners, or become locations for prisons, rubbish dumps and military installations. He also describes the varied ways in which England's islands have been formed, and how they are constantly changing, so making a mockery of human claims to sovereignty.

About the Author

Ian Crofton was born and raised in Edinburgh, and now lives in London. He has written a number of works of popular history, including A Curious History of Food and Drink and Scottish History without the Boring Bits. His Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable was described by the Times Literary Supplement as 'a lightly erudite and well-informed work of eclectic scholarship'. In 2014 the Daily Telegraph selected his Walking the Border as one of its travel books of the year. Ian Crofton also contributes regularly to the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, and in 2015 was awarded the Club's W.H. Murray Literary Prize.

Reviews

'A fascinating and charming reverie on the impermanence of our Island's islands'

-- Tony Robinson, star of Blackadder and Time Team

'There is real poise and poetry in [Crofton's] writing, sentences that lift the reader's spirit like the extraordinary power of the birds'

-- Donald S Murray * Stornoway Gazette *

'In 2014 Ian Crofton followed England's northern frontier with Scotland. Now he turns to the country's other edges, specifically to those parts that have become detached - including Lindisfarne and the Isle of Wight, Eel Pie Island and the Isles of Scilly'

* Telegraph *

'a fascinating study about what it means to exist on the fringes'

* Coast Magazine, Book of the Month *

'A really engaging...armchair-travel read'

* BBC Countryfile Magazine *

'A companionable and oddly compulsive book... Ian Crofton throws himself into this eclectic collection of islands with gusto, finding fascinating tales to share even from the most benighted urban backwaters.'

* The Scottish Mountaineer *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780276656
Author Ian Crofton
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Birlinn Ltd
Publisher Birlinn General
Weight(grams) 620g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 24mm