Around the British Isles in 80 Island Books: Book 1

Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg - first published in 2011

The St Kilda archipelago is located 34 miles WNW of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The islands are sometimes referred to as the Islands on the Edge of the World. The largest island is Hirta. Soay and Dun are close to Hirta and Borerary is 4 miles to the north east. There are also several large sea stacks. The islands were inhabited from prehistoric times until 1930 when the remaining St Kildans asked to be evacuated. The St Kildans, who lived on Hirta, caught seabirds for food, feathers and oil. They also fished and kept sheep, cattle and grew a few crops like oats, barley and potatoes.

I haven’t yet had the privilege of visiting St Kilda but it is number 1 on my wish list. (Update June 2018 - I finally made it to St Kilda - an amazing place).

This is a fictionalised account of the lives of Neil Mackenzie, a Church of Scotland minister and his wife Lizzie, who lived on St Kilda from 1830 until 1843. Neil was determined to get the islanders to abandon the last of their heathen beliefs and rituals and to improve their social conditions. At this time the neonatal death rate on St Kilda was 60%. This was mainly due to neonatal tetanus, which killed babies within a couple of weeks of their birth due to high levels of the tetanus toxin in the soil and the unhygienic conditions in which the islanders lived. Three of Lizzie and Neil’s children die of tetanus and their marriage suffers because Neil is too busy trying to improve the spiritual and physical lives of the islanders to pay her much attention. This is the only novel I have come across set on St Kilda and it brings the island to life in a way than non-fiction books cannot. 8/10

Islands covered – St Kilda archipelago – Hirta, Soay and Dun