Islander: a journey round our archipelago. A Review

The unique character of this book is that it is an exploration of the presence and significance of islands in literature, particularly through the writings of D.H. Lawrence, who wrote the short story, The Man Who Loved Islands, and the biography of Lawrence's friend and fellow writer, the island enthusiast, one might say fanatic, Compton Mackenzie, whose prolific literary output is almost forgotten save for his Scottish comedies Whisky Galore and Hunting the Fairies. These two and the interplay of their ideas  and stories  perform the  role of a unifying presence that binds the book together as a working piece of literature. 

Mackenzie was a failed actor turned to writing, but his life was dominated by his obsession with Scottish identity and his fascination with islands, of which he owned several over the years, an obsession that was to lead him to the edge of bankruptcy and to ruin his marriage. The one island of which he made a success to some degree was Barra, the experience of which led to his most successful work,Whisky Galore,  which made a hilarious tale about the wreck of the SS Cabinet Minister, based on the true tale of the wartime wreck of the SS Politician, laden with thousands of bottles of good Scots whisky destined for the USA and how the islanders "saved" the whisky!

Lawrence was always sceptical of people who retreat to islands and penned the tale of a man who was so obsessed with them that he gradually retreats to progressively smaller islands and in the process withdraws from relationships until he goes mad and dies. For Lawrence the isolated island is a metaphor for the individual's retreat into his/her ego and the self-destruction that it causes, as well as the destruction of relationships. 

Barkham makes the reader question several things about themselves. The main question that he poses is whether an obsession with islands is a positive thing or whether it is a pathological matter, a way of withdrawing from relationships and responsibilities. But to counter this he tells much that is positive about the island cultures  that he studies. Barkham also makes us question our own obsessions, whatever   they are, and one obsession that he cites is the writer's yearning for literary recognition. As  a writer himself he sadly notes that few nowadays read Mackenzie's supposed masterpieces of serious literature, and he wonders who will read his own works in the years to come. 

The author is interested in islands, as he is in coastlines,  but not obsessed with them, and he evinces no desire to retreat to one or to dwell there. Nor does he idealise island living, as he recognises its problems, particularly those of a social and economic nature. 

Beginning with the Isle of Man, the largest isle in the book and a partly independent country in its own right, he proceeds through the Scottish isles of South Ronaldsey, Barra and Eigg, before turning to the Irish Rathlin. We then read the sad tale of Alderney, the channel island used by the Nazis as a concentration camp, then the smaller St Martins in the Isles of Scilly before returning to the once inhabited Scottish isle of St Kilda and the sad account of its abandonment. The book finishes with Bardsey, the one time sacred isle off North Wales, before finishing with two uninhabited English islands off  the south east coast of England.

Each of these ten islands is discussed in full, with its unique history given and its culture sympathetically presented. As a Briton, I realised from reading this book how little I knew of the  Isle of Man, an island state only about a hundred miles from my home in North West England, and this book has gone some way to rectifying this deficiency in my knowledge.

The book gives material drawn from history, archaeology, geography, literature, politics science and religion. With my religious interests   I was particularly interested in Bardsey, the Isle of Ten Thousand Saints, off the Welsh coast, guarded by fierce tides and currents, but still inhabited by a warden and his family and several hermit nuns. I was curious about the way in which places acquire a spirit, character of presence, which is perhaps the trace of the deeds done there. The book gave me some room for reflection on these matters, though answers are in short supply. 

Islander makes us reflect on the negative effect of the dominant urban culture on more traditional local cultures and how the western economic system erases local identities and local cultures. Islander poses a challenge to us all as to how we respond to this erasure. 

Reading the book led me to the conclusion that islands are interesting for the human events that happen on them. Even the two uninhabited isles at the end of the book have a human history whose traces linger within their shores. Without this history there would be some flora and fauna to discuss, but as these isles contain no unique species we need not say much. Humans make the world interesting to a great extent. 

Islander is a well-written book that will give great pleasure to the thoughtful reader. It was a delightful Christmas presence from my second son. I read it all with delight and commend it to the reader.