Reading about far away places is a timely chance to escape. Let this book review of Island Dreams take you in the right direction…
Gavin Francis is an islo-phile who realised he was ‘…In love with the idea that, on a patch of land, protected by a circumference of sea, the obligations and irritations of life would dissolve and a singular clarity of mind would descend.’
Journeying just a few miles from home, and (literally) to the ends of the earth, through personal experience and historical research, he explores the disparate human desire for both connection and isolation.
Using illustrative maps, both ancient and modern, alongside, short, annotated sections of text, the reader is given an impression of a journal documenting vastly different landscapes of time and place.
Considering books to be ‘portable islands’ allows us to travel through them and with them.
Who was it who said ‘We travel to come home to ourselves.’?
Enjoy your island dreams.
See Gavin talking about his book here.
Island Dreams, by Gavin Francis, is published by Canongate.
The lighthouse sunset is on the island of Bressay, Shetland, when The Travelling Bookbinder taught there….
