Product Description

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to own your own set of islands? 20 years ago it happened to Adam Nicolson. His father had answered a newspaper advertisement in the '30s. 'Uninhabited islands for sale', it said. 'Outer Hebrides. 600 acres. 500 ft basaltic cliffs. Puffins and seals. Cabin. Apply Col. Kenneth Macdonald, Portree, Skye.' These were the Shiants, three of the loneliest of the British Isles, set in a dangerous sea, with no more than a stone-built, rat-ridden bothy as accommodation, five miles or so off the coast of Lewis. They cost GBP1400 and for that he bought one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Adam Nicolson inherited the islands when he was 21, an astonishing gift, and they became in many ways the core of his life. This is the first time he has told the full story of his own experiences there, amid the dazzling concentration of birds, crowds guillemots, razorbills, great skuas and 240,000 puffins coming in every spring out of the North Atlantic to breed; the violence and danger of the surrounding seas; the songs and poems which cluster around the islands; the accounts of attemped murder, witchcraft and catastophe; the treasured place which the Shiants still hold in the Hebridean mind Sea Room describes the Shiants as a microcosm of richness, their long and at times painful history combined with a natural world at its most potent: Bronze Age gold and the memory of sea eagles, an 8th-century hermit and his carved pillow stone, 18th-century memories soaked into the landscape and stories passed down from generation to generation. This is not the account of a castaway on a deserted rock but its opposite, a celebration of life which an extraordinary island enshrines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42951 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Biographies are supposed to deal with people, not places, but Adam Nicolson's lyrical new book, Sea Room, is best seen as a biography. Dealing with the geology, history, natural history, sociology, and emotional resonance of the Shiants--a trio of Hebridean Islands between Skye and Harris --Nicolson's book is an all-encompassing characterisation of this remote corner of the British Isles.

Nicolson begins by describing how, inheriting the islands from his father as a young man, the islands have come to have an unusually deep meaning for him. This comes out in his painstaking reconstruction of the geological formation of the islands, of their ancient bronze and iron age settlements, and of the harsh lives of the families that lived here until large-scale economies destroyed traditional Hebridean life.

There is much sadness and anger in Nicolson's account of these changes, but also joy--joy at the richness of life in such a place, and joy that these changes have allowed Nicolson himself to experience the Shiants' beauty. The precision with which almost every inch of the islands' physical and historical identities are described is, literally, marvellous; Nicolson eschews generalities, and writes with a love of detail that is increasingly rare. Although the book is a little maudlin at times, this is only the reflection of Nicolson's own sensitivity to the place. The Shiants are anthropomorphised, becoming a character in their own right, proof that the tiniest place can reflect the passage of time. --Toby Green

Review
'Exceptionally well done, beautifully written, personal yet panoramic' Observer 'An extraordinarily outward-looking book! a truly passionate attention to detail!. A love-letter no one else could hope to write so well.' Sunday Telegraph 'A passionate evocation, a compression of observation and anecdote which catches you up in its intelligence as well as its enthusiasm, and fill you with homesickness for a place you've never been to.' Daily Telegraph 'Generous, exuberant and a vividly written narrative!. history, travel-writing and memoir of the best sort.' Spectator 'Sharply observed, a finely written work, one to be savoured, turned over and over like a good whisky.' Sunday Times 'Palpably exciting narrative -- lyrical, compelling, earthy, always readable, and often surprising. Nicolson's book is an adventure story with Hemingway highs and is also unselfconscious, wonderfully idiosyncratic, and, above all, beautifully written.' Literary Review 'A passionate account of the Shiants with a lyricism that brings the islands to life.' Sunday Telegraph 'He conjures the numinous spirit of the place in long, lyric stretches and weaves a vivid tapestry of people and events.' Evening Standard 'A wise, witty, enlightening, enchanting book' Times Literary Supplement 'A fine storyteller' Independent on Sunday 'Beautifully written' Time Out 'Enthralling throughout' Independent 'A passionate evocation of the Shiants which catches you up in its intelligence as well as its enthusiasm, and fills you with homesickness for a place you've never been to. Nicolson writes so well, with such modesty and deep feeling, that the book fairly sings in your hands.' Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Adam Nicolson is the author of many books on history, travel and the environment. He is winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the British Topography Prize and lives on a farm in Sussex.

Customer Reviews

Island life at its best
This is a stunningly-written account of Adam Nicholson's love of the islands passed to him by his father. Laden with detail, both historical and archaeological, it avoids any possible dryness by its inclusion of the human element in two forms: Nicholson himself along with friends and family; and, more importantly, those who have helped him discover - and therefore truly know - his islands. His appreciation and gratitude of all are obvious and irresistibly expressed. Descriptive passages are exactly that, eloquent and often plain beautiful. If you are a fan of emotive and well-written books, give it a try; you won't regret it. This is probably the most unorthodox love story you will ever read.

Sea Room
The author is a self-confessed English "owner" of the Shiants, three daunting small islands in the Hebrides; the book is his attempt to convey his passion for the islands before passing them to his son when he reaches 21. Nicolson is aware of the political and social difficulties of his position and does not shrink from them; in this he is at least as open as Gavin Maxwell, with whose works this compares very favourably. He writes with passion, and with that gift of getting you to see the places he describes. The book is intriguing, delightful, eccentric; it draws you in to one man's vision of a wild and foreign part of the UK.

An excellent work
This is a magnificent book, beautifully written with many excellent illustrations, likely to be the definitive volume on the Shiant Islands for years to come. More, it provides the benchmark for what is required for a study of all Scotland's outlying islands; all previous studies will be found wanting after this exemplary model.

The book consists of sixteen chapters fundamentally dealing with the geology, wildlife and archareology of three uninhabited islands lying five miles or so off the coast of Lewis. But this is no dry history. The back cloth is a dazzling concentration of towering basaltic cliffs, crowds of guillemots, razorbills, great skuas and 240,000 puffins; the violence and danger of the surrounding seas; the songs and verse which encapsulate former island life, accounts of attempted murder, witchcraft and catastrophe and the treasured place the Shiants still hold in the Hebridean mind. The stage is a microcosm of richness: Bronze Age gold, the memory of sea eagles, an 8th century hermit and his carved stone pillow, memories of cruel clearances soaked up by the landscape and tales passed down from generation to generation.

This is not another 'happy-clappy' saga written by a romantic, weekend recluse but a powerful baring of the soul by a man who has earned the admiration and friendship of his fellow islanders intertwined with his love of the past and a deep understanding of the rocks from which these islands have been hewn. For the first time since he inherited the Shiants from his father twenty years ago, Adam Nicolson tells the full story of his own experiences there in a style no other writer of the Hebrides has ever attempted before or since.

Overall SEA ROOM is a stimulating book and one I read pleasurably and admiringly from cover to cover, non-stop. For this well written, well researched and scholarly work, Adam Nicolson has placed all students of the Hebrides in his debt. It deserves to be read by all involved in the contemporary study of Scottish life.