Islands: Nature And Culture

Description

Islands are contradictory places: they can be remote, mysterious spots, or lively centres of holiday revelry. They are associated alternately with escape, imprisonment, holiday and exile, and their alluring natural beauty and remoteness has inspired artists and writers across the centuries. Islands have been places of immense scientific, political and creative importance, from Darwin's enlightening voyage to the Galapagos Islands, which resulted in his groundbreaking theory of evolution, to the moated prisons that have incarcerated dangerous convicts and freedom fighters alike.In this cultural and scientific history of these alluring, often isolated, territories, Stephen A. Royle describes the great variety of islands scattered around the world, their economies, and the animals, plants and people living on them. He shows that despite the view of some islands as earthly paradises, they are often beset by severe limitations in both resources and opportunities. Many islands have faced population loss in recent decades, and some islanders have developed their homelands into tourist destinations in order to combat economic instability. Islands often conjure up exotic, otherworldly beauty and have provided both refuge and inspiration for artists and writers, such as Paul Gauguin in Tahiti and George Orwell on the Scottish island of Jura. Filled with intriguing illustrations, Islands is a compelling and comprehensive survey of the geographical and cultural aspects of island life.

Reviews

“In Islands, Stephen Royle provides a comprehensive gateway to understanding what makes islands unique in ecology, geology and culture. Definition is tricky when it comes to an island, but somehow a bridge or a tunnel does not end island status. He examines islands as enchanted, experimental and utopian worlds. Whether it’s Prospero casting spells or nuclear tests on Pacific atolls, islands are often home to magic both scientific and supernatural. What happens on an island, Royle notes, can break social norms and established scientific laws. The break can be fictional, like The Island of Dr Moreau or Lord of the Flies, which use a mysterious island’s constraints to examine human nature. 

A break with norms can also be real, as with the tiny British island colony St Helena. This island, once a prison for Napoleon, preserves a pre-1960s English identity, according to Royle. It is a distant island more English than England itself. And it may preserve an even older England. Back in 1649, St Helena was already described as ‘abouding with ye long observ’d Spirrits of English Men, as certain they are born free and not to be made Subservient to any interest farther than is consistent with their own and the publick good’.” Tom Hart - GeoDirectory  (JC BookGrocer)

Author description

Stephen A. Royle is Professor of Island Geography at Queen's University Belfast. He is a founding member of the International Small Island Studies Association, Deputy Editor of Island Studies Journal, and he has explored no less than 778 islands over many years.