The Summer Isles: A Voyage of the Imagination

Description

From the acclaimed author of Rising Ground, this is the story of a sea voyage to the Summer Isles, an enticing, periodically inhabited archipelago off the Scottish Highlands. To reach them, Marsden must head north, sailing a course along the exposed and exhilarating western coasts of Ireland and Scotland. It is a course that has been followed for centuries by explorers and adventurers, fishermen and monks, all drawn to the western seas and their distant horizons. But as much as the journey of men, this book is about the journey of ideas: of nostalgia and a very particular kind of geographical yearning; of a culture and language that has been shaped by its dramatic topography; of the local legend and lore that live on to this day. Combining travel writing, memoir and cultural history, The Summer Isles is a book about the search for real places, for imagined places, and for places that might always exist somewhere in between.

Philip Marsden is a writer and journalist. He is the author of several works of travel writing and non-fiction, including most recently Rising Ground (published by Granta in 2014), The Levelling Sea and The Barefoot Emperor, and a novel, The Main Cages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in Cornwall with his wife and children.

The Summer Isles is a gazetteer of toponyms that conjure a scintillating watery world * Spectator * Marsden brings characteristic elegance and insatiable curiosity to bear on his voyage; we are whisked along as passengers, alternately enchanted by this unforgettable coastline and apprehensive of its treachery. Even the most dogged land lubber cannot fail to be exhilarated by these stiff salt breezes -- Madeleine Bunting A truly remarkable writer -- Robert Macfarlane Reading Philip Marsden's voyage to the Summer Isles is the only time in my life I shall want to be lost at sea. Shimmering, profound, and deeply mesmerizing -- John Lewis-Stempel Set sail on limpid prose in this wonderful peregrination up the west coast of Britain and Ireland. There is no better guide to the deep and dazzling meanings found on the western fringe of Europe than Philip Marsden' -- Patrick Barkham His ambitious route takes him up the west coast of Ireland where his passion for Celtic mythology and the Irish language has full play. This long summer's voyage is as thickly littered with poets and singers as with rocks and headlands, and only the weather proves unaccommodating * Yachting Monthly * [Marsden] writes beautifully...In these islands at the edge of the Atlantic, staring out into "the endless blue of the west", he finds a rich tradition of myth, poetry and ancient lore that still speaks to us across the gulf of time... memorable and indeed magical * Guardian * By turns exhilarating and hauntingly poetic, this is a memorable book, full of reflection and wonder... sublime * Mail on Sunday * A triumph. It is unlikely that a finer travel book will be published all year * Literary Review * Philip Marsden's lovely book is full of [stories], dredged up from the rich tradition of ancient and medieval literature... Best of all are the people Marsden encounters * Geographical Magazine * [A] marvellous book... It's a portal not just to other places but to other times... the best book I've read on a sailing trip since Jonathan Raban's Coasting -- The year's best travel books * Telegraph * [Marsden] knows far more about Celtic mythology, anthropology and the Celtic way of seeing the world, than most of us, and for this he must be commended * RTE * The author has long been captivated by this group of islands, and this book charts his first visit, by boat from Cornwall through the Hebrides. It was a journey once taken by adventurers, monks and saints centuries before -- Scots Magazine One of the most brilliant imaginative and alluring travel books I have read in a long time. Only Robert Macfarlane can now equal Mr. Marsden as a contemporary master of finely written descriptive prose -- Books of the year (chosen by William Dalrymple) * Wall Street Journal * The writing is vivid and the story is very personal * Practical Boat Owner *