#Summer islands free#

Free UK p&p over ВЈ15, online orders only. To order a copy go to or call 020-3176 3837. The Summer Isles is published by Granta (ВЈ20). In these islands at the edge of the Atlantic, staring out into вЂњthe endless blue of the westвЂќ, he finds a rich tradition of myth, poetry and ancient lore that still speaks to us across the gulf of time. But what is so memorable and indeed magical is the way he interweaves the imaginary and the real. The harsh coastal landscapes and shifting moods of the sea are vividly described. He writes beautifully, and transforms what could easily have been a conventional travel book into something far more evocative and personal: вЂњa sea journey is a passage of the soulвЂќ. But as he says, вЂњLooking for imaginary places isnвЂ™t meant to be easy.вЂќ There are memorable historical anecdotes and encounters with local people on the islands he visits, such as the crofter and poet John Purser on Skye, whose words appear on the beams of EdinburghвЂ™s Library of Scottish Poetry: вЂњA nation is forged in the hearth of poetry.вЂќ There is real danger, too, as Marsden faces violent storms and even a powerful whirlpool. MarsdenвЂ™s odyssey in his wooden boat, Tsambika, takes him up the western fringe of the archipelago вЂ“ вЂњEuropeвЂ™s dreaming frontierвЂќ вЂ“ through a rich territory of real and imagined places. MarsdenвЂ™s own home in Cornwall was once owned by a family who lost all their money in the 16th century вЂњlooking for an island called Hy-BrasilвЂќ.

There are countless mythical islands in these waters, from TГr na nГ“g (land of the young), Avalon, Hinba and the Green Island, to Elysium. Nowhere is richer in imaginary places than the western seas, where the fickle currents, fractured coastline and constantly changing weather made crossings dangerous and deepened the mystery around those islands lost in the mist or just over the horizon.

According to Marsden, вЂњthe ability to believe in places that are invisible, to build stories around them and inhabit them, remains the defining attribute of our speciesвЂќ. His book is therefore both a travelogue and an exploration of mythical islands, those вЂњplaces just beyond our reach, places that arenвЂ™t really there at allвЂќ. Marsden vowed that one day he would visit the Summer Isles, but as the years passed they came to symbolise the longing for a place that exists more in the imagination than in reality. For Marlow, the trip is a chance to reconnect after too long apart. After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small island off the coast of Florida where she spent summers growing up to help her mother settle the family estate. He and Bridget decided to visit the islands, but before they could do so, she was killed in a climbing accident on Ben More Assynt. A summer of healing, friendship, loveand a secret that could change everything. He later read that the pioneering ecologist and naturalist Frank Fraser Darling had lived on one of the islands, Tanera MГІr, in the 1930s.

Summer islands