Saturday, March 03, 2007

Michael Powell and his Scottish Islands

Michael Powell, the film director (1905-1990) loved islands of Scotland and undertook film projects which involved island stories.

His first film to use the island theme was The Edge of the World and released in 1935. This is a story based on the evacuation of St Kilda that happened in 1930.

Michael Powell also to Scotland (The Orkneys) to film Spy in Black (1939), but the Hebrides were the setting for I Know Where I’m Going! - a film released in 1945.

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Fraser Darling’s Island Years

In the 1930's and 40's there was a feeling that remote Scottish islands could be sources of peace and inspiration. Whether it was for a study of nature or just an attempt to reach out to the further reaches of the British Isles.

My own desire to visit remote islands started with a read of Frank Fraser Darling's Island Years (1940) and Island Farm (1948). In these books, Frank Fraser Darling describes his experience in living on several uninhabited Scottish islands. Fraser Darling was an ecologist before the word was in public use. His studies in the Scottish Highlands and Islands are what started his distinguished career.

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

Sealand

A man made island from the second world war, this structure stands in the Thames Estuary, offshore from England.

The owners of this structure have named it the Principality of Sealand and I bring this to your attention simply because this organisation is wanting to buy it. It seems that the owners (the Bates family) are asking a lot of money for this place which recently suffered a fire with much damage.

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Monday, February 05, 2007

A Book with three Names

I have a book called Searching for Crusoe: A Journey Among the Last Real Islands

This book by Thurston Clarke was published by Ballantine Books in February, 2001. The book was then published by Ballantine in January 2002 as Searching for Paradise: A Grand Tour of the World’s Unspoiled Islands.

It was then published by Abacus in July 2003 as Islomania: A Journey Among the Last Real Islands

Sunday, February 04, 2007

The Islands of Juan Fernandez

Juan Fernandez is actually an Archipelago located some 600 kilometers from the Chilean mainland in the Pacific Ocean.

The main island sometimes referred to as Juan Fernandez was called Mas à Tierra but has now been renamed (in 1966, by the Chilean government) to Robinson Crusoe Island. Another Island in the group once called Mas à Feura has been renamed Alejandro Selkirk.

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Nordhoff and Hall’s ‘Pitcairn’s Island’

I picked up a second hand copy of Pitcairn’s Island at a local antiquarian book fair.

Not a pristine collectible copy, but since I haven’t read this novel, that is based on the, sometimes conflicting, accounts of the events between 1790 and 1880 on Pitcairn’s Island, it seemed like a good opportunity to read this story.

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