The Summer Isles: A Voyage of the Imagination - Hardcover

Philip Marsden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783782994 ISBN 13: 9781783782994

Publisher: Granta, 2019

Synopsis

'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

In an old wooden sloop, Philip Marsden plots a course north from his home in Cornwall. He is sailing for the Summer Isles, a small archipelago near the top of Scotland that holds for him a deep and personal significance. On the way, he must navigate the west coast of Ireland and the Inner Hebrides. Bearing the full force of the Atlantic, it is a seaboard which is also a mythical frontier, a place as rich in story as anywhere on earth. Through the people he meets and the tales he uncovers, Marsden builds up a haunting picture of these shores - of imaginary islands and the Celtic otherworld, of the ageless draw of the west, of the life of the sea and perennial loss - and the redemptive power of the imagination. Exhilarating and poignant, Marsden's prose has been widely praised. Bringing together themes he has been pursuing for many years, The Summer Isles is an unforgettable account of the search for actual places, invented places, and those places in between that shape the lives of individuals and entire nations.

About this title

Product 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.

Review:

Praise for The Summer Isles:

'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

'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

'A truly remarkable writer' Robert Macfarlane

'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 landlubber cannot fail to be exhilarated by these stiff salt breezes' Madeleine Bunting

Praise for Rising Ground:

'An extraordinary, complex and fascinating book... about the human endeavour to make meaning of life' Justin Cartwright, Spectator

'A truly wonderful and enjoyable book' Jan Morris, Literary Review

'A superb "search for the spirit of place" which takes Cornwall as its focal terrain, and the idea of sacred landscape as its subject' Robert Macfarlane

'The writing is just gorgeous... this is a passionate argument for a particular kind of local history, one defined by a deep connection with landscape' Sunday Times

'A wonderful, thought-provoking book' Patrick Gale

'The writing is just so good. Short, pacey chapters and an intimate and aphoristic style complement his powerful evocation of different terrains' --Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1783782994
• ISBN 13: 9781783782994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352