Island in Imagination and Experience

Barry Smith is, it goes without saying, an islomane. He has spent much of his 60-odd years at work, rest and play on islands all around the world - from Scotland's Western Isles to Sicily, from Alaska to Cape Horn. To cap it all, he has completed a doctoral dissertation... about islands. He lives in northern Scotland and France.

“Magisterial… A harrowing, enthralling piece of work that bears comparison with John Prebble’s equally dense, equally passionate classic, The Highland Clearances … [A] fascinating, scrupulous, angry, scholarly book.” Jim Perrin, The Great Outdoors; "Fascinating and wide-ranging." Island Review; "A fascinating survey of the interplay between those little dots of land and the human imagination … Smith is excellent on the ways in which islands have always been pawns in geopolitical games…witty." Geographical