Recommended Reading - UK & Eire: Islands on the Edge
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Here is a brief selection of favorite, new and hard-to-find books, prepared for your journey. The items on this list can be purchased (some at discount rates) through Longitude Books. For your convenience, you may call (800) 342-2164 to order these books directly from Longitude, a specialty mail-order book service, or to order on-line please click here
ESSENTIAL READING
These four books and map are available as a package for $80 including shipping, 15% off the retail price (Item no. EXGBR381). Free shipping on any additional books ordered.
The British Isles, A History of Four Nations. Hugh Kearney, 2006, PAPER, 324 PAGES, $31.99
The Celts, Romans, Vikings, Normans and modern immigrants all make an appearance in Kearney's elegant and revisionist history, the tale of not just the English but also of the Scots, Welsh and Irish. (Item no. GBR88)
Coasting, A Private Journey. Jonathan Raban, 2003, PAPER, 302 PAGES, $13.00
Raban's eloquent, anecdotal account of a solo circumnavigation of the British Isles in a 30-foot ketch, his first experience in a boat. It's an engaging account of the experience of the sea, and the people and places he encounters.
(Item no. GBR591)
Seamanship, A Voyage along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles. Adam Nicolson, 2007, PAPER, 192 PAGES, $13.95
Nicolson offers an engrossing account of a coastal voyage from Cornwall, along the western coast of Ireland, out to the Faeroes and to Orkney in this brief hymn to the sea. (Item no. GBR561)
Crofter and the Laird. John McPhee, 1978, PAPER, 159 PAGES, $15.00
McPhee packs up his family and returns to his ancestral land on the Isle of Colonsay for a year in this lyrical, appreciative portrait of place and traditional ways of life in the Hebrides. (Item no. SCT23)
British Isles, Great Britain & Ireland Map. Hammond Maps, 2008, MAP, $11.95
A colorful shaded relief map produced in the UK showing both Great Britain and Ireland. (Item no. GBR29)
ALSO RECOMMENDED
The Mother Tongue, English and How it Got that Way. Bill Bryson, 1996, PAPER, 270 PAGES, $14.00
An indispensable guide to the language that divides us, this book is a humorous and informative history of the English language that showcases Bryson's wry wit. (Item no. GBR15)
The Story of England. Christopher Hibbert, 1992, PAPER, 224 PAGES, $14.95
Beautifully illustrated with color pictures, chronological charts, royal genealogies and maps, this popular history of English politics, economics and culture from the Neolithic to the 1990s is an excellent traveler's companion. (Item no. GBR02)
Ireland, A Concise History. Conor Cruise O'Brien, 1985, PAPER, 192 PAGES, $19.95
With its lively, even-handed tone and hundreds of photographs, this grand history by scholar and statesman O'Brien conveys the essence of the Irish experience. (Item no. IRE20)
Tir a'Mhurain, The Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Paul Strand, Catherine Duncan (Introduction), Basil Davidson (Contributor), 2002, HARD COVER, 128 PAGES, $40.00
The great American photographer Paul Strand spent three months in the Hebrides in 1954, capturing the region's striking landscapes and residents on film. This exhibition catalog handsomely reproduces 105 of Strand's duotone images. (Item no. SCT58)
The Aran Islands. J.M. Synge, Tim Robinson (Introduction), 1992, PAPER, 208 PAGES, $14.00
A much-loved turn-of-the-century account of the islands (as contrasted with mainland Ireland), drenched in the Celtic soul of the Irish. (Item no. IRE26)
The Last of the Celts. Marcus Tanner, 2006, PAPER, 398 PAGES, $22.00
Welsh journalist Tanner mixes anecdote, interview and research in this lively account of encounters with far-flung Celts from Scotland, Wales and Belfast to Brittany, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Trelew. (Item no. GBR527)
Cathedrals and Castles, Building in the Middle Ages. Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, 1995, PAPER, 175 PAGES, $12.95
A pocket-size encyclopedia of the art, architecture and culture of the Middle Ages. It features hundreds of drawings and color illustrations, a brief chronology and plenty more information. (Item no. MED07)
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, 1984, PAPER, 429 PAGES, $18.00
Written when Johnson was 63 and Boswell 32 in 1773 (when they had been friends for ten years), these travel journals were the result of a three-month trip to Scotland. Johnson observed Scotland, and Boswell observed Johnson. (Item no. SCT07)
Celtic Prayers and Incantations. Alexander Carmichael, 2007, PAPER, 142 PAGES, $7.95
A collection of early Christian oral poems, blessings and prayers, largely from the Hebrides. (Item no. CLT4)
Orkneyinga Saga, The History of the Earls of Orkney. Hermann Palssom, Paul Edwards, 1981, PAPER, 253 PAGES, $15.00
A fusion of myth and legend, circa A.D. 1200, by an unnamed Icelandic author. The medieval chronicle has its center of action among the Orkney Islands, describing their conquest by Norwegian kings during the Viking expansion of the ninth century. (Item no. VIK07)
The People of the Sea. David Thomson, Seamus Heaney (Introduction), 2002, PAPER, 214 PAGES, $16.00
A classic, originally published in 1954. Thomson sets out in search of Celtic legends among the people of Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides and Western Ireland in this marvelous, unclassifiable collection of tales, observations and encounters. (Item no. SCT68)
Birds of Europe. Killian Mullarney, Lars Svensson, Dan Zetterstrom, Peter J. Grant, 2000, PAPER, 400 PAGES, $29.95
A Princeton field guide to European birds, featuring 3,500 color illustrations that depict 722 species found across the continent. (Item no. FG47)