Abstract
DESCRIPTIVE books on Scotland, even of the west of Scotland, have appeared in unusual numbers during the last few years, most pitching their appeal to the alien tourist. The book before us is not a guide book to the western isles, but a series of essays dealing with one and another aspect of the islands and their life, human and animal, from Skye and the St. Kilda group to Ailsa Craig, and wandering beyond these bounds to Scilly and Connemara. Yet we doubt if any other book can convey so vividly to the mind of the reader the loneliness and pathos, as well as the camaraderie, of existence upon these outliers of civilisation. The result is partly due to the fine word-pictures of the islands and then people, but also to the way in which myth and tradition have been interpolated to illustrate a mental outlook which belongs to the past; and, as one would expect, there is much said about the wild life of the places the author has taken such pains to visit. The book is illustrated by striking and beautiful photographs.
Islands of the West.
By Seton Gordon. Pp. xv + 211 + 47 plates. (London, Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1933.) 15s. net.
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Islands of the West . Nature 133, 596 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133596c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133596c0