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Island of Dreams Dan Boothby

Island of Dreams By Dan Boothby

Island of Dreams by Dan Boothby


$15.99
Condition - Very Good
6 in stock

Summary

A deeply personal memoir about the search for home.

Island of Dreams Summary

Island of Dreams: A Personal History of a Remarkable Place by Dan Boothby

Dan Boothby had been drifting for more than twenty years, without the pontoons of family, friends or a steady occupation. He was looking for but never finding the perfect place to land. Finally, unexpectedly, an opportunity presented itself. After a lifelong obsession with Gavin Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water trilogy, Boothby was given the chance to move to Maxwell's former home, a tiny island on the western seaboard of the Highlands of Scotland.
Island of Dreams is about Boothby's time living there, and about the natural and human history that surrounded him; it's about the people he meets and the stories they tell, and about his engagement with this remote landscape, including the otters that inhabit it. Interspersed with Boothby's own story is a quest to better understand the mysterious Gavin Maxwell.
Beautifully written and frequently leavened with a dry wit, Island of Dreams is a charming celebration of the particularities of place.

Island of Dreams Reviews

Evocative. . .A lively, often funny tribute to the place and to the people he meets there. . .Island of Dreams shows him emerging from the shadow of his hero to become a gifted writer himself * Daily Mail *
Enigmatic yet compelling . . . The book returned me to an adolescent passion for Maxwell's Ring of Bright Water -- Katharine Norbury * Guardian *
I was gripped from start to finish by Dan Boothby's ISLAND OF DREAMS. . . Never overdone, pretentious, self-absorbed or sentimental, it is written with skill and expertise with all the conviction and authority it needs to enthrall. The descriptive passages are traced with deep sensitivity and richly evocative of people, turning seasons, the loneliness of island life, and the enticing contours of the location. This is a fitting and poignant tribute to the enduring value of the Ring of Bright Water Trilogy, written as a personal quest of devotion and discovery. Boothby's disarmingly personal approach draws you into the thrall and mystique of Maxwell's literary landscape by revealing as much about the writer's self as weaving a love-spell to the island and its ghosts -- Miriam Darlington, author of OTTER COUNTRY
Island of Dreams, like its inspiration Raven Seek Thy Brother, becomes an elegy - not for a lost way of life, but for a dream tenaciously pursued and regretfully abandoned -- Ariane Bankes * Literary Review *
This lovely book offers an elliptical portrait of the enigmatic Gavin Maxwell, and an equally elliptical portrait of its author. A delightful meditation on the impossibility of really knowing anyone, not least ourselves. -- Katharine Norbury, author of THE FISH LADDER
Boothby is entranced by Gavin Maxwell, not because of otters, nor through any overt kinship with the boys who shared the writer's odd life, but because Maxwell seemed always to occupy the debatable lands between the self one knows, the self that is reflected in others and the self that only exists in the act of writing. . .The message - one message - of this remarkable, deceptive book is that not much stays, in any state, and that belonging, like ownership, is only ever partial and never-finished * National *
The writing is as crisp as the coastal air, shot through with the humour of humanity and bright animal magic * Saga *

About Dan Boothby

Dan Boothby was born in 1969. He has travelled extensively, including sailing over 40,000 sea miles. Island of Dreams is his first work of creative non-fiction.

Additional information

GOR007457166
9781509800773
1509800778
Island of Dreams: A Personal History of a Remarkable Place by Dan Boothby
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Pan Macmillan
2016-04-07
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Island of Dreams