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A Summer in Skye
 
 
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A Summer in Skye (Paperback)

by Alexander Smith (Author), Alexander Strahan (Illustrator)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Birlinn Ltd; New edition edition (4 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1874744386
  • ISBN-13: 978-1874744382
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.1 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 923,665 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
In 1864 Alexander Smith, poet and essayist, spent six weeks on the island of Skye. Inspired by his stay, this prose poem celebrates his life, the life around him and the history and nature of the island.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You need a book on holiday on Skye...in case it rains., 14 Oct 2005
By P. Thomson "Peter" (Hull, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It was a strange experience to actually sit and read a book in the very house in which it had been written back in the 1860's. I had some inclination that I was close to one of the main settings for the book from Alexander Smiths superb detail on physical landscape but it was not until a brief conversation with an islander in a gift shop that the true fact emerged. An impulse bid on-line for this hefty work left me with a copy withdrawn from a municipal library stock with hard cover and an ominous message on the inside cover not to return the book to the lending library if there was a contagious illness in the household. Perhaps a standard sticky insert for the 1950's library service. The text starts in Edinburgh with highly descriptive scenes of a bustling city and some not very complimentary remarks about the rougher residents of what are now the prime tourist spots. Well worth a read if you are in Edinburgh for any period of time.The journey across Scotland has some general interest mainly reliance on horse and carriage and frequent stopovers at Inns. I was shocked by the bleak and poverty stricken life of the Skye islanders whose reliance on the produce of land and sea was regularly interrupted by the inevitable rain..around seven feet over one extended and persistently wet period (in excess of 200 days continous). Alexander Smith was confined to his hosts house through much of his stay on Skye because of the rain and there are some excellent narratives on the experience of watching the incessant influence of moisture and its power in shaping life on the island. The book is very broad in its coverage of the history of Skye and a few chapters comment on the many legends and superstitions from a race of giant warriors to witches with stories of local fatalities amongst fishermen and the crofters. This sort of deep rooted folklore is very believable on a dark and stormy night in a holiday cottage miles from anywhere and with no points of reference or the comfort of streetlights or traffic noises. Any slight rattling of slates or rustling of trees is very foreboding in such a location. Anyone looking to actively walk in the Cuillin Mountains would be interested in relevant parts of the book as long as they are not travelling alone as some of the valleys and remote spots are evidently full of lost souls or the dispossessed. Some of the chapters are a bit tediuos and heavy going very much in the style of Fennimore Cooper (who is mentioned) and can be speed-read without spoiling the best bits of the book. After my two week stay on Skye and faced with the prospect of a long motoring journey home I really enjoyed the description of Alexander Smiths own journey by slow boat which operated like a local bus service carrying boozy passengers, freight and livestock. An epic journey in itself. The man himself was deeply moved by his time on the island and this is infectious.
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