Leslie Thomas is best known as a fiction author. I have never read any of his novels but I really like his gentle and meandering style of writing in this book. The version I read was the 2nd edition, which was published in 1982. In it Leslie Thomas took the opportunity to revisit some of the islands he had first visited 14 years earlier and also to visit some e.g. Brownsea for the first time. The 2nd edition is also illustrated with photographs taken by Peter Cheze-Brown.
Leslie Thomas chose 17 islands scattered across the British Isles from St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly in the south to Fair Isle in the north and from Lindisfarne/Holy Island in the east to Clear Island in the far west of County Cork. I have visited all of the islands he chose except Great Blasket, Skellig Michael, Fair Isle and Auskerry. I doubt I will ever get to Auskerry, which is one of the Orkney Islands but I hope one day soon to visit Fair Isle, Great Blasket and Skellig Michael. Although my own island visits have all been much more recently than Leslie Thomas's, in many cases his perceptions about them were very similar to my own.
Leslie Thomas concentrates on describing his own explorations on the islands and the characters and lifestyles of the people who live on them, although he does also include some information about the history and wildlife on them. One review describes it as "a richly evocative account, alive with stories of sea and storm, happy with humour and humanity", which sums it up well and another describes it as "whimsical", which is also true.
8/10
Islands covered: Lundy, Brownsea, St Agnes, Gugh, St Mary's, Tresco, Caldy, Fair Isle, Auskerry, Great Blasket, Skellig Michael, Clear Island, Herm, Sark, Alderney, Luing and Holy Island/Lindisfarne
Mannez Lighthouse, Alderney
Old Light, Lundy
Shrine, Clear Island
Quay, Brownsea Island
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