Island life - part 2

    Pop over to Cornflower Books, if you would be so kind, and read what is in effect the first part of this post, then come back and read on.

                              ~~~~~

    Now that you know what I'm talking about, let's have a look at Mike Faulkner's second book. But first, local readers especially may like to know that Mike will be in Edinburgh at Waterstone's, George Street, on the 25th. (details here) to give a slideshow and reading from his new book Still on the Sound: A Seasonal Look at Island Life.

    I have to be elsewhere that evening, but if timings permit I shall put my head round the door and say hello, because from both Mike's books my overall impression was of warmth and good nature and of someone whose company would be well worth being in.

      If this little chap happens to be there, too, then that would be a bonus! This is Eddie, a star of the book as his predecessors, Jock and Rab, were of The Blue Cabin, and a very important member of the Faulkner household.

     The new book continues with Mike's portrait of island life but looked at seasonally, and here the beautiful photographs which illustrate it - and they really are lovely and very skilled - provide a perfect foil for the text which itself achieves just the right balance of the anecdotal with the informative and the personal. The reader will come away feeling as though they could now find their way around the island and the lough and recognise all Mike and Lynn's family and friends if they bumped into them, and that's as it should be because for this type of book to work - which it most certainly does - it has to feel as though the writer is talking directly to the reader, as if they were there together in the cabin by the woodburning stove with a gale whipping up the waves just yards from the door!

     We can get a peek at life on Islandmore by visiting Mike's blog, but all the better to have the panoramic views his lovely books provide.

                                                 ~~~~~

Edited to add: since I wrote these posts I've been trying to think of the best way to sum up the books and now I've got it - they are simply a breath of fresh air!

Comments

[[email protected]]

Thank-you, and thanks for reading the books with such an invested eye! Being published in Ireland, the lovely thing about this is that I've always seen the books as being about island life, and not just Irish island life - so it's refreshing to get the word out. Mike F

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks very much for letting us know about both these books. They sound wonderful. (And one can never have too many books about islands.)

[Choclette]

You do such a wonderful sell on books - if I took you up on all of them, there wouldn't be any room left in our house to cook and eat!

[Cornflower]

You should see our house, Choclette!

[Cornflower]

You're right, Linda!