Introduction

I have always loved islands.  I think it is something to do with them having well defined boundaries and a remote feeling.  I also agree with the Celtic view that islands are a bridge between heaven and earth. 

I have just returned from my 3 year reading challenge of Around the World in 80 Books and wanted something closer to home for a change.  Therefore I have decided to combine my 2 of my hobbies - 'collecting' islands and reading.  I intend to read 80 books about or set on British/Irish offshore islands.  I will start with St Kilda, which is west of the Outer Hebrides and work my way round the British Isles in an anticlockwise direction, finishing in the Shetland Islands.  Most of the books will be fiction with a few biographies and other non-fiction books.  Some will be children's books and some are set on fictional islands, so I will read them where I think the fictional island would be located.