Book review – The Island in Imagination and Experience

From Treasure Island to Robin Island, islands have long proved irresistible to mankind’s imagination.

In this book, self-confessed island obsessive Barry Smith explores how islands attract us and examines the kind of human experiences that islands inspire.

He has spent much of his 60-odd years at work, rest and play on islands all around the world – from Scotland’s Western Isles to Sicily, from Alaska to Cape Horn. To cap it all, he has completed a doctoral dissertation… about islands.

The Island in Imagination and Experience by Barry Smith

Journeying all around the world to gather some of the most fascinating stories of earth’s half a million islands, this book considers the unique geography, politics and economics of islands and their cultures.

This book effectively traces their significant place in literature, religion and philosophy, and disentangles the myths and the facts to reveal just why islands exert such an insistent and long-lived grip on the human psyche.

The Island in Imagination and Experience by Barry Smith, £12.99, published by Saraband.

Scottish Field rating: ***