Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession
Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession
In Island Dreams, Gavin Francis examines our collective fascination with islands. He blends stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy and great voyages from literature, shedding new light on the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness.
Comparing the life of freedom of thirty years of extraordinary travel from the Faroe Islands to the Aegean, from the Galapagos to the Andaman Islands with a life of responsibility as a doctor, community member and parent approaching middle age, Island Dreams riffs on the twinned poles of rest and motion, independence and attachment, never more relevant than in today's perennially connected world.
Illustrated with maps throughout, this is a celebration of human adventures in the world and within our minds.
Author : Gavin Francis
Edition : Canongate Books Ltd, Hardback, 256 pages
ISBN : 9781786898180
Published : 1st October 2020
Weight: 640g
Dimensions: 221 x 162 x 25mm
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"There, in a landscape empty of the human, off the bottom of all the maps I had known as a child, I found the perfect place to read..."
WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2013
Shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Prize
Shortlisted for the 2013 RSL Ondaatje Prize
Shortlisted for Banff Adventure Travel Prize
Shortlisted for Saltire Book of the Year Award
A book embodying adventure. Filled with wonder, awe and much reflection. Gavin Francis beautifully captures the beauty and silence of solitude and isolation in one of the remotest places on Earth.
Author : Gavin Francis
Edition : Vintage, Paperback, 250 pages
ISBN : 9780099565963
Weight: 266g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 20mm
'Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.’
Who has not dreamed of life on an exotic isle, far away from civilisation? Here is the novel which has inspired countless imitations by lesser writers, none of which equal the power and originality of Defoe's famous book. Robinson Crusoe, set ashore on an island after a terrible storm at sea, is forced to make do with only a knife, some tobacco, and a pipe. He learns how to build a canoe, make bread, and endure endless solitude. That is, until, twenty-four years later, when he confronts another human being. First published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been praised by such writers as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Johnson as one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Why Novel North recommends
'Based on the real life Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe is rich in detail and believable. It’s both considered and insightful, and reflects the contemplations of those of us who’ve pondered how we would survive marooned on an island. It rightly deserves its consideration as one of the most the famous adventure stories written.'
Author : Daniel Defoe
Edition : Penguin Clothbound Classic, Hardback, 288 pages
ISBN : 9780141393407
Weight: 403g
Dimensions: 204 x 138 x 29mm
In An Island Odyssey Hamish Haswell-Smith casts off in his forty-one-foot sloop Jandara, armed with his sketch pad and a route map of a journey first taken by Martin Martin in 1703. Haswell-Smith sets sail on a voyage that will take him to fifty-two different islands around the Scottish Coast, from Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde to St. Kilda, Fair Isle and Bass Rock.
Filled with natural history, local legend and landscapes and accompanied by the author's own distinctive sketches and watercolours An Island Odyssey is a delightful way to discover or rediscover the romance, beauty and inescapable magnetism of the Scottish Islands.
Author : Hamish Haswell-Smith
Edition : Canongate Books Ltd, Paperback, 175 pages
ISBN : 9781782111757
Published : 3rd April 2014
Weight: 791g
Dimensions: 260 x 246 x 14mm
Nadolny's masterpiece, The Discovery of Slowness tells the incredible story of Sir John Franklin, a sailor and explorer who battled the frozen Arctic wastes and paved the way for the discovery of the Northwest Passage. Ridiculed for his slowness in his youth, Franklin's quiet calm later helps him to become an icon of adventure.
Author : Sten Nadolny
Edition : Paperback, 320 pages, Canongate
ISBN : 9781786891662