Castaway (Paperback)

One of the main criticisms of the first edition of the book was that it ended before the Castaways year of experiences on the island of Taransay was up. The paperback edition corrects this curtailment by including some final chapters on the closing scenes as the Castaways left their island home and also an epilogue describing what happened to some of the Castaways post TV-La-la-land.

Marks book is largely made up of dialogue taken from video diaries and personal written diaries kept by the "islanders" and as such you feel like the 'invisible friend' drawn into the experience and confided in.

However, I couldn't help feel that much of what Marks book concentrates on is the 'black' and conflict plagued side of island life. I would recommend reading the book in conjunction with watching the TV programmes and actually observe that many of the episodes recounted in the book with an air of foreboding actually were quite comical and humorous events!

I felt the biggest missing element from the book was the main character herself - the Island of Taransay. There is some description of parts of the island but dont read the book expecting delicious depiction of sandy bleached-white beaches, wind swept mountains with glistening snow caps, blue white-topped waves crashing against iodine black seaweed coated rocks. Thats not the kind of book Mark has written - it's a story of peoples interactions with each other, not with the island.

The book is an excellent read and quite easy to follow through with about 90% of it being dialogue between the islanders - either to each other or to the camera or to their own personal written diaries. On occasion, as you read through Marks book, it can be a little tricky to work out who is saying what and to whom, but it's written in such a way that you quickly learn the kinds of things the 'characters' are likely to say and this helps give a sense that you know then and that you're standing beside them, albeit invisible.

I do feel that Marks book, perhaps due to the pressures of time and publishers, becomes 'thinner' in later chapters. Initial chapters go into infinitesimal details on all the arguments, conflicts, meetings etc but in later chapters hugely significant events, such as Bens birthday or killing of the deer are largely ignored.

I would have liked to have seen a second volume of the book giving as much detail about the second six months on Taransay as had been given to the first six months.

Like other readers, I do think a little map of the pods showing who slept where and the relative distances between the steading and the McKay house, would have helped put things into context.

Initially for me the most viewed page in the book was the central page showing the photographs of all the islanders. This helped tremendously to put faces to names which occur through-out the book and helped again to put everything into context.

A tremendous book recounting the experiences of a tremendous project.

Well done Mark and well done Castaways!

Wills