Book 47 Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape

Monty Halls' Great Irish Escape: Adventures on the Wild Atlantic Coast by Monty Halls - first published in 2011

Monty Halls and his black very lively German shepherd dog Reuben spent 6 months from May to October  in a cottage on the island of Inishnee (linked by a bridge to the mainland) near Roundstone, Connemara, County Galway.  He worked as a volunteer for the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and he spent much of the time in his own RIB sailing up and down the nearby coast observing and photographing dolphins.   He also found time to:

• Help tag basking sharks off Malin Head and blue sharks off Cleggan
• Take part in a currach race at a regatta on the Aran Islands
• Help with an autopsy on a very smelly dead minke whale
• Transport a dead striped dolphin to Galway in his Land Rover
• Take part in a mussel cooking competition
• Learn how to harvest mussels
• Learn how to fish for trout and salmon with varying degrees of success
• Help crew a Galway hooker in a sailing race at Kinvara
• Visit Inishturk and gave a talk to the school children about whales, dolphins and sharks.

In order to raise £5,000 to purchase a rescue pontoon for returning stranded cetaceans to the sea he organised a diving and wildlife festival at Roundstone, rowed 20+ miles from Kilronan on Inishmore to Roundstone and organised a sponsored rowing relay on a  rowing machine at Roundstone.

I don't know how he managed to cram all those activities into 6 months.  Presumably he didn't have very much 'stand and stare time'.  The very readable account of his time in Ireland is interspersed with some information about cetaceans and other wildlife and some Irish history.  It accompanies the BBC TV series of the same name.

Islands covered - Inishnee, Inishlacken, Inishturk, Achill Island and Inishmore  8/10

Ruined house on Inishnee

 

Roundstone from Inishnee

 

Inishnee

 

Modern houses on Inishnee

 

Inishturk cliffs

 

Inishturk Harbour

 

Inishturk

 

Inishturk

Book 46 - Bride of the Emerald Isle

Bride of the Emerald Isle by Trish Wylie - first published in 2007

This is the first Mills and Boon romance I have ever read and it will probably be the last.  I was pleasantly surprised that the quality of the writing was actually good.  What lets it down is the plot, which consists entirely of man (Garrett Kincaid) meets woman (Keelin O'Donnell), they fall in love but their relationship doesn't flourish at first, due to misunderstandings on both sides but then they get back together and live happily ever after.  I assume this is pretty much the plot of most Mills and Boon romances and for those that like this format, there are plenty of titles to choose from.

Books set on Irish islands proved hard to find and even harder to get hold of from my local library service, so I am grateful to this book, as it is set on Valentia Island, which is located to the west of County Kerry.  Valentia is one of my favourite islands.   4/10 - for the book, not the island, which would score 9/10!

Islands covered - Valentia

Lighthouse at Cromwell Point, Valentia

Book 45 - Salt and Emerald

Salt and Emerald: A Hesitant Solo Voyage around Ireland by Alastair Scott - first published in 2008

In 2003 the author bought a 36 year old yacht called Ceana of Clyde and decided to circumnavigate Ireland in it.  He sailed across from his home in Scotland and started his clockwise journey on Rathlin Island.  The book's short but numerous chapters describing his journey are interspersed with chapters about Irish history, natural history, aspects of sailing, customs and famous Irish people.  He takes time out when in port to explore parts of inland Ireland and pays a visit to the Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy.   He also visited many of the islands around the Irish coast.

I'm not sure if the non-journey chapters were just put in to pad out what is quite a short book but I found them as interesting as his journey.  The book is very readable but the format isn't the best.  There is a map but I have no idea how long his journey lasted, as no dates are given.  There are also no photos.

Islands covered - Rathlin, Skelling Michael, Valentia, the Blaskets, Inishbofin, Tory, Fastnet Rock, Clare Island, Inishmurray, Inishmaan and Inishmore.

Book 44 - Safe House by Chris Ewan

Safe House by Chris Ewan - first published in 2012

Manx plumber and part time motorbike race Rob Hale wakes up in hospital on the Isle of Man after a motorbike crash.  However there is no trace of his passenger, a young woman he had only recently met for the first time called Lena.  The police and ambulance crew deny all knowledge of her existence.  When he is released from hospital Rob sets out to discover the truth about who Lena really is and where she has gone.  He is soon joined by a private investigator called Rebecca Lewis, who has been hired by his parents to investigate his sister Laura's apparent suicide on the Isle of Man a few weeks earlier.

As Rob and Rebecca uncover evidence and start to piece together the truth, they realise that Lena and Laura knew each other, that they cannot trust anyone to tell them the whole truth and that their own lives may be in danger.  There are a number of twists and turns in the story before the truth is revealed and justice is done.

This excellent crime novel was the only novel set on the Isle of Man, which I could find stocked by my local library service.  9/10

Islands covered - Isle of Man

 Laxey Wheel

 Horse Tram, Douglas

Book 43 - Hollow Earth

Hollow Earth by John and Carole E. Barrowman - first published in 2012

I enjoyed this book but I am not sure I entirely understood it!  It is action packed from beginning to end.

12 year old twins Emily and Matt Calder are "Animares", which means they have inherited the ability from their mother to make their own drawings come to life.  They use their ability to amuse themselves and to help them get out of difficult situations.  However there are others with the same gift who use it for evil purposes.   Each adult Animare is assigned a Guardian to  protect them and the Animare and Guardian have a psychic connection to each other's minds and imaginations.  The twins gift is special because their mother is an Animare and their father is a Guardian, which means that they have combined powers.    The twins and their mother Sandie are living in London but have to flee to Scotland when some villains turn up at their flat to kidnap them.  They want to use the twins' gift to open up Hollow Earth, a realm where all demons, devils and monsters are trapped.  The twins and their mother retreat to the fictitious island of Auchinmurn where their grandfather lives in an old abbey.  However they are not safe there either...

The islands of Auchinmurn and its smaller neighbour Era Mina are clearly based on Great and Little Cumbrae judging both by their shape on the map provided in the book and the fact that they are reached by ferry from Largs.  9/10

Glaidstone Trig Point, Great Cumbrae