Isles of the West - Softcover

Mitchell, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 086241878X ISBN 13: 9780862418786

Publisher: Canongate Books, 1999

Synopsis

Describes a three-month sea voyage made in 1996 around the Hebrides. Its aim was to look at the major issues peculiar to the islands - issues of landownership and power, tourism and development, incomers and natives, language and identity and the failed attempts to "modernise" the Hebrides.

About this title

Review:

"Ian Mitchell's Isles of the West, is a Cobbet-like voyage of discovery into how arrogantly and unjustly the nature quangos run their protectorates in the Highlands and Islands." Neal Ascherson, Book of the Year, The Herald , 4.12.1999.

"...a complete delight, and a change from the usual kind of book about the Hebrides." Chris Dillon, BBC Radio, 19.10.1999

"Ian Mitchell asked some important questions. What, for example is a healthy relationship between people and land? To what extent is the love of nature misanthropic? They are harsh questions and in an explosive book with an anodyne title Mitchell attempts to answer them. His questions are, for me, a kind of revelation." Adam Nicolson, Sunday Telegraph ,14.11.1999

"This well written and absorbing book is a penetrating and astringent analysis of the state of play in developing wildlife conservation amid the frictions of human relationships." Lord Barber of Tewkesbury, Country Illustrated (Janaury 2000)

"It is difficult to fault Mitchell on a single issue. Isles of the West is worth reading for both its truths and its splendid evocation of island life." Ruaridh Nicoll, The Herald , 13.12.1999

"Mr Mitchell is an inveterate chatter-up of the locals, and in the course of his journey he unearths a rich cast-list of characters--farmers, hoteliers, entrepreneurs--who manage to survive, despite everything, in this, the most beautiful, most romantic and most complicated area in Britain." Magnus Linklater, The Times, 23.12.1999

"Ian Mitchell has cleverly let the Hebridean witnesses explain their exasperation and despair at the ruination of their islands by the militant conservationists." Peter Clarke, New Statesman , 10.1.2000

"Isles of the West is an important and fascinating study of present-day island life. It is extensively illustrated and captures the allure of the locale as well as portraying the islanders with warmth, good humour and understanding." Hugh Smith, Oban Times , 6.1.2000

"This is a readable, entertaining and well-researched book." Jonathan Bulmer, Stornoway Gazette, 6.1.2000

"For an eye-opening description of land ownership in the Hebrides, 1 turned to Ian Mitchell's beautifully written new book, Isles of the West." Matt Ridley, Daily Telegraph , 26.3.2000

"I enjoyed this book, its clear lines of argument, its careful documentation, its little anecdotes and its touches of humour. I wonder if Mitchell's sense of the ridiculous is not perhaps the thing that most differentiates him from those he criticises, even more than his obvious sympathy with crofters and the Gaelic way of life." Jean Hunter, The Ileach , 20.11.99

"A controversial book, and those who enjoy open criticism of 'pure' conservation will find it an enthralling read." Colin Shedden, Shooting and Conservation , Spring 2000

"Ian Mitchell makes some telling points and I confess I found his book deliciously readable." Peter Marren, British Wildlife, April 2000

"After this book the politics of land use and land ownership in western Scotland will never be the same again. It exposes the chasm between local people and the RSPB in a way which cannot be ignored by reformists in the Scottish parliament. Mitchell identifies the point never adequately answered: why should local communities in unchanging places be bound hand and foot by new environmental regulations curbing routine behaviour when it was their traditional management that created these environments in the first place? Mitchell's sharp pen has caused a furore in Scotland." Michael Wigan The Field, August 2000

"Ian Mitchell has written a bracingly acerbic and enjoyable book, full of barbed surprises, and if even half his accusations are true, every staff member of the hallowed organisations he attacks should read it. And mend their ways." Redmond O'Hanlon, Times Literary Supplement, 18.2.2000 -- What the Critics have said about Isles of the West

From the Author:

In 1991 I married an Islay girl and moved to the island From Kintyre. I now live in the distillery village of Lagavulin. As the distance between the two places was less than twenty miles, I assumed, in my ignorance, that the way of life would not bedissimilar. I could not have been more wrong. Though I had, over the years, visited many of the Hebridean islands and was familiar with the faces they present to the outside world, I soon realized how superficial my impressions were. So, when the publishers of a previous book of mine, The Cost of a Reputation (also listed on Amazon.co.uk), offered me the opportunity to write about the islands off the west of Scotland, I accepted the commission with alacrity. If nothing else, the research would be fascinating. So it was that in the summer of 1996 I made a voyage round the Hebrides in Sylvia B, a 21-foot, bermudan-rigged, fiberglass cruising sloop--displacement: 1 ton--which had been sold as a 'Corribee' by Newbridge Boats of Bridport in Dorset until the firm went out of business in the late 1980s. I have owned her since 1981 and over the years sailed extensively in Hebridean waters and, less so, round the north and west coasts of Ireland. We are old friends.

My only stipulation to Canongate was that the book concern itself with contemporary issues, rather than the past. Though some history is important if the reader wants to understand the present, I have kept it to the minimum necessary to make sense of the often tangled relations between people and place today.

My particular interest was in wildlife conservation, an issue whose controversial nature I had been almost entirely unaware of before coming to live on Islay. What was the situation elsewhere in the Hebrides? Since I could not go everywhere in a single summer, I decided I would set an itinerary for my trip which would consist of all the islands where the land-owning nature conservation charities "the backbone of the conservation bureaucracy" own land. The list was the National Trust for Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the John Muir Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Woodland Trust. I added to that list the places where Scottish Natural Heritage owns reserves, and included, for comparison, a Ministry of Defence and a Forestry Commission estate, they being the other two large public landowners who have some sort of conservation brief. My intention, though, was not only to talk to the conservationists and their neighbours, I also wanted to look at the wider issues presented by island life. Thus the Gaelic language, crofting, lairdism, feudalism, economic development and decay, tourism and the problems and possibilities associated with depopulation and incomers are all covered. But conservation and the environment is the one political issue which is common to almost all islands. I was away from home for two and a half months and, apart from a couple of stormy passages, and a few bouts of homesickness, I enjoyed every minute of it. I love sailing; I love the islands; and I love the good natured, independent-minded people of the Hebrides. I had intended to leave while the bluebells were still out and be home before the bracken turned. But my preparations took a lot longer than I had anticipated and I left a month late. Consequently, I did not get back until early October. This was a lucky mistake as the weather throughout the Highlands and Islands in September 1996 was amongst the best on record. The Herald called it 'an Indian summer to remember', noting that Fort Augustus, for example, had enjoyed the second highest total of sunshine hours since records began in the nineteenth century. But this book is more about people than places. Apart from the few pub conversations, which I have reconstructed from memory, all quoted words have been transcribed verbatim. This book is asnap-shot. I have resisted the temptation to update the record so that the opinions expressed and the facts noted are those of the late summer of 1996. Many things have changed since then, particularly since the announcement of the Scottish parliament and the consequent politicisation of the land debate. Since this book deals with many of the matters which are central to that controversy, I hope that it will make a constructive contribution by giving an accurate, if not comprehensive, picture of how things stood in the Hebrides during the last summer before all the people and organisations with axes to grind had to start watching what they said.

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 086241878X
• ISBN 13: 9780862418786
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 227